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Another weekend of fisticuffs has come and gone, as UFC Fight Night 156 blew the roof off Antel Arena last Saturday night (Aug. 10, 2019) in Montevideo, Uruguay. Plenty of fighters were left licking their wounds, including Tecia Torres, who suffered her fourth straight defeat after getting outworked by Marina Rodriguez.
And Ilir Latifi, who was knocked out by Volkan Oezdemir in the second round of their Light Heavyweight showdown (see it). But, which fighter is suffering from the worst post-fight hangover, now a few days removed from the show?
Mike Perry.
Perry had a big chance to stop Vicente Luque’s momentum, as the hard-hitting showman looked to end his opponent’s five-fight win streak by collecting his first back-to-back win streak in more than two years.
As expected, Perry came out swinging hard, putting everything in his punches to end the fight early with a one-hitter quitter. Unfortunately, against a technician like Luque, that doesn’t always work, as he isn’t the type of man who will break his strategy to engage in a slobber knocker just for the sake of it.
Indeed, Luque kept his poise and momentum and stuck to his strategy, picking apart Perry when he saw openings, ultimately delivering a crushing knee to “Platinum’s” face that resulted in a badly broken nose. Despite the setback, Perry kept chugging along, proving that no matter what gets thrown at him, he will keep coming until you either sleep him or force him to yell uncle.
That said, Perry’s valiant efforts to hang in following the shattered beak shows just how much heart and tenacity he has. In fact, had it not been for the broken nose and the bloody mess he was in, Perry could have just as well walked away with the split decision.
In the end, though, Perry came up just short to lose his second fight in his last three outings. Going back a bit further, Perry is just 2-4 since 2017. Record aside, Perry is as entertaining as they come, which means as long as he keeps doing him, he will always have a spot on UFC’s roster.
As for what’s next for “Platinum,” perhaps a fight against Bryan Barberena is in order. “Bam Bam” is winless (0-2) in his last two UFC outings, losing to Luque and Randy Brown. But Barberena is a scrapper, and that is right up Perry’s alley, as both men like to stand-and-bang and go for broke night in and night out.
They each have a tough uphill battle to try and break into a very-crowded Top 15. In fact, it’s so crowded that Ben Askren is ranked No. 11 with Robbie Lawler coming in at No. 12. That said, it will be a while before either Perry or Barberena get a taste of Top 15-ranked foes, so they might as well take on each other to see what’s what.
Of course, Perry has to sit on the sidelines for the timebeing, as it will be a while before he gets clearance to return to action after he underwent surgery to fix his busted beak.
For complete UFC Uruguay results and coverage click here.