Jake Paul reveals he will fight Mike Perry in Saudi Arabia if Tommy Fury withdraws for third time
Jake Paul has a backup plan should Tommy Fury pull out of their upcoming clash on February 26, 2023, and that backup plans name is Mike Perry, former UFC star and current BKFC talent.
Paul announced the following in regards to his potential late replacement at the Beterbiev vs Yarde press conference:
We have Mike Perry on standby. Let’s go, Mike Perry. He’s ready to jump in in case Tommy pulls out.”
Paul hasn’t had the best luck when it comes to opponents making the walk, as Fury has withdrawn from both previous bookings against him, and he also lost his fight with Hasim Rahman Jr last year.
Paul was slated to fight Fury in both 2021 and 2022.
The second time Fury pulled out Paul ended up fighting former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley in their immediate rematch, and he was slated to face Rahman in August of last year, but ended up facing former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva a couple months later in October instead.
Both the Woodley rematch and Silva fights went well for him; his second fight with Woodley was relatively boring, but he was able to KO Woodley stiff this time, as the first time he won a split decision, and his fight with Silva was surprisingly an incredible back-and-forth war he won via unanimous decision.
But, events have been cancelled due to his opponents withdrawing from their scheduled bouts more than once, and this time he wants a backup so that doesn’t happen again.
Mike Perry is a great name for that second choice.
To fans, either Perry or Nate Diaz makes the most sense, and honestly, we thought we were past this point of Paul vs Fury.
However, Paul wants a boxer on his resume. He’s defeated three MMA world champions across four fights, Ben Askren (KO), Tyron Woodley twice (SD, KO), and Anderson Silva (UD), but the criticism seemingly never ends, as fans and combat athletes are always trashing his name for not fighting real boxers.
Well, he’s tried to, more than once. Fury is 8-0 as a professional boxer, and Rahman, a heavyweight mind you, was 12-1 as a professional.
Mike Perry opened up his MMA career with a record of 11-1 through his first 12 fights, all 11 wins via knockout.
Since then, he’d gone 3-7, bringing his record to 14-8.
However, though he’s 0-1 as a professional boxer, a fight that went down in 2015, since leaving the UFC, Perry has gone 3-0 in boxing matches. Two of which were bare knuckle bouts, and the other of which he defeated a 25-3 professional boxer where both men were wearing MMA gloves.
Do you think Tommy Fury shows up, or does Jake Paul end up facing Mike Perry next month in Saudi Arabia?
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