Mike Perry not only had to deal with a grueling weight cut ahead of his main card scrap with Alex Oliveira later tonight (Sat., April 27, 2019) at UFC on ESPN+ 8 live on ESPN+ from inside BB&T Center in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but the welterweight knockout artist nearly hung himself in his gym during training camp.
The incident occurred not too long ago while ESPN’s film crew was at Perry’s gym capturing some pre-fight footage. “Platinum” was playing around on the pull-up bar when his workout took a turn for the worse. The next thing Perry knew he was being woken up by his team, who informed the welterweight that Ronaldo Souza, who headlines UFC Fort Lauderdale against Jake Hermansson, had stepped in to save his life.
Perry offered a detailed recount of the incident in a recent interview with Fox Sports Asia:
“Jacare Souza is my hero. He is literally my hero man. I was playing around at the gym, I’m going to drop a story for you here. Alright, so there was like this rubber band hanging from the pull-up bar and this rubber band was like for workouts, it was a thick band. We were about to do filming with the ESPN crew and umm, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I put my head in this thing and was like I’m going to do a neck workout. And work on my ability to take a choke,” Mike Perry explained. “So I lean forward and it wraps around my neck and so I flex myself so that I could hold on. And in two seconds, as soon as lean forward (and flex), next thing I know Alan, from the UFC, and Jacare Souza are there. Alan is like slapping me and they’re pouring water on me. But, they say Jacare, this while he was filming for ESPN, he was hitting a bag and he sees me, and Danielle was right next to me – she thinks I’m playing around, so she’s like ‘Mike quit playing’. So within two seconds I pass out and swing and then she’s hears a bang and she looks up and says ‘Mike stop playing’. So I had hit my face against the metal pull-up bar and I’m passed out. Plus I’m still hanging from this thing. I’m hanging myself at this point and Jacare sees me and runs over quick and pulls me out of this thing. Then they were like waking me up. When I came too I was like ‘Oh man, it was a bad joke. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everybody.’”
Yikes. That could have ended much worse for “Platinum.” Luckily, Souza was in attendance to pull off his best Avengers impression.
Despite the training camp scare, and crippling weight cut, Perry is geared up for his clash with Oliveira tonight at UFC Ft. Lauderale. Having gone 1-3 in his last four Octagon appearances, it’s imperative that Perry walks away with a win.