Dareen Till and ‘Platinum’ Mike Perry are more than willing to step inside the ring. So what’s stopping them?
This weekend, Till will once again strap on the eight-ounce gloves when he headlines Misfits Boxing 21 at Vaillant Live in Derby, England. Meeting him in the evening’s main event will be 14-fight UFC veteran Darren ‘The Dentist’ Till.
Till walked away from his own UFC career in 2022 after dropping five of his last six fights in the Octagon, including back-to-back third-round submission losses against Derek Brunson and reigning middleweight titleholder Dricus du Plessis.
Since his UFC exit, Till has been lobbying for a fight with Perry. Unfortunately, their scrap has not yet come to fruition, despite both of them agreeing to it in interviews and on social media. During a recent interview with MMA Fighting, Till offered some insight into the delay, placing the blame entirely on Malki Kawa, Perry’s manager and the CEO of First Round Management.
“I think we do both want to fight each other, but I don’t know. His manager is having a little [expletive] off with me at the moment. Malki, so Malki, sort your [expletive] out, mate, you little crab. And then, yeah, so I’d love it for it to happen. I think it’s going to happen at some point because we’re both there all the time.
“So yeah, he’s got his promotion. They offered me some money to fight. Was good money to be fair, but you know, it was probably enough. I don’t know. I’d love to fight him towards the end of this year if we can make it happen. We’ve got to get the weight right and stuff like that because I am the bigger guy. He knows that. When you know, he likes to talk. I’ve never really talked about our sparring, but he likes to talk about sparring.
“I punched him from pillar to post. What’s he on about? But yeah, I’d love to fight him. Really would. And he’s a good guy. He’s a family man. He’s made a lot of money. You know, I’m not a hater, me. I’m happy for the guy.”
Mike Perry hasn’t fought since July 2024
After a stint under the UFC banner that saw him go 7-8, Mike Perry become a bona fide star in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, earning wins over Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Luke Rockhold, Eddie Alvarez, and Thiago Alves.
Last July, ‘Platinum’ traded in his handwraps for a pair of boxing gloves, going toe-to-toe with Jake Paul in Tampa, Florida. Despite his best effort to try and KO ‘The Problem Child’ early, Perry ultimately gassed out, allowing Paul to finish him in the sixth round. The loss ended up getting Perry “fired” from BKFC by part-owner Conor McGregor, who lambasted ‘Platinum’ for the defeat on social media immediate after.
Obviously, Perry isn’t going anywhere considering he’s by far and away, the biggest star in BKFC. Still, it’s odd that he hasn’t appeared for the promotion in more than a year, leading many to wonder whether or not McGregor was actually preventing the promotion from booking him.
