UFC alumni, Mike Perry and Darren Till are determined to make their long-awaited fight possible at 185 pounds. Unfortunately, UFC welterweight champion Belal Muhammad had the bright idea of butting in between these two long-time frenemies. He was consequently asked to move aside by Perry.
Belal and Till have been beefing for quite some time over each other’s boxing prowess. So when Till asked Perry if he would be willing to fight him on the 29th of March for Misfits Boxing, Belal jumped in and offered the BKFC ‘King of Violence’ his help as a cornerman. However, Perry wasn’t too keen on boxing lessons from the UFC champion.
I respect it Belal but we’ve never trained together at all and it’s boxing. Would love to have you front row to witness the match tho
— Platinum Mike Perry (@PlatinumPerry) January 30, 2025
Belal’s primary skill is wrestling, which is something he’s so good at that he’s on a 10-fight win streak in the UFC. He even used it to great effect and dropped former champion Leon Edwards on his head to a unanimous decision victory at UFC 304 and win the welterweight title.
During the lead-up to the fight, Belal’s camp had really hyped up his boxing, with his coach Horacio Gutierrez comparing him to Canelo Alvarez. Although he was ridiculed for it, Belal shut everyone up by getting the better of the English fighter in striking exchanges. So Perry might have been a bit hasty to dismiss Belal. That said, never actually having trained with the UFC champion might be considered an acceptable reason for doing so.
Besides, Perry and Till have had a complex relationship over the years. They used to be training partners, but their relationship soured in 2019 when Perry made derogatory comments about Till’s personal life, leading to a public fallout. Till later called out Perry over his poor show against Jake Paul in 2024.
If the two are truly serious about finding common ground and duking it out inside a ring, it should be a very interesting match-up.
What can fans expect Till vs. Perry?
On January 18, Till put on a show in Manchester, UK, delivering a stunning sixth-round knockout against Anthony ‘Pretty Boy’ Taylor. But instead of celebrating his victory, the Liverpudlian quickly turned his focus to what’s next, calling out a few big names including Jorge Masvidal, KSI, Tommy Fury, and Mike Perry.
Now, neither Perry nor Till are boxers. Sure, they picked up the sport and have improved since their departure from UFC but expecting a highly skilled encounter will be a fallacy.
However, the two are extremely scrappy and have built a reputation for delivering exciting dogfights.
Till has primarily been boxing since the UFC released him and such is a slightly better boxer than Perry. It also helps that he’s had a fair few years of kickboxing training. Perry, meanwhile, is not as technically sound but has the heart of a warrior, a testament to this is his successful career in bare-knuckle fighting.
However, if he can sustain that same spirit with a significantly tougher opponent than the ones he’s faced in BKFC remains to be seen.
