Mike Perry is done with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, and HITC is floating him for a return to the UFC.
The outlet ran it as a question: “Mike Perry set for UFC return? New update suggests he’s back following BKFC exit.” That headline is the whole of what’s public right now. There’s no named source attached and no opponent, date or weight class. The UFC hasn’t announced anything, and Perry hasn’t said anything on the record about it either. So treat this as a rumor until somebody signs something.
Perry hasn’t fought under the UFC banner since 2021. He spent the years since building a bigger name elsewhere, mostly at BKFC, where he became one of the promotion’s headline attractions.
His most recent result wasn’t a good one. Perry was knocked out at Dual Arena 1. Jimi Manuwa ended a seven-year layoff on that undercard, beating Chase Sherman in a boxing match, and Manuwa now has a December 24 date with Alistair Overeem on the Jake Paul vs. Cedric Doumbe card in Dubai.
If Perry does come back to the Octagon, there’s an old name on the welterweight schedule. Geoff Neal, who beat Perry during a five-fight winning streak after Neal earned his contract on the inaugural season of the Contender Series in 2017, opens the UFC’s 2027 calendar against Chris Curtis on January 16 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas. Neal has lost his last two, both by stoppage, to Uros Medic and Carlos Prates. Curtis, 39, beat Max Griffin in his welterweight debut before dropping a fight to Myktybek Orolbai. Neither man is ranked. That’s the neighborhood a returning Perry would walk into, and it’s a neighborhood full of guys who need a scrap.
Perry has stayed loud this week, for what it’s worth. After Usman Nurmagomedov and his team jumped Merab Dvalishvili at a fighter hotel in Abu Dhabi, Perry was one of the first fighters to weigh in, writing, “God bless Merab. Super tough, hope you have a squad to get your back next time.” He landed on a list alongside Aljamain Sterling, Curtis Blaydes, Israel Adesanya and Sean Strickland, all of them blasting Nurmagomedov. That comes at an awkward time for the UFC, which has reportedly been planning to sign the PFL lightweight champion now that he’s a free agent.
My take: I want this to be real. Perry is the kind of guy matchmakers book when they want a card people actually talk about, and he’ll answer a question without running it through a publicist first. But a question mark in a headline isn’t a contract, and “new update suggests” isn’t a source. Until the UFC puts his name next to an opponent and a date, Perry’s next fight is still TBD, and the only confirmed welterweight bout on the books is Neal vs. Curtis on January 16.
