This past Saturday at BKFC‘s Knucklemania, one of the more hyped fights featured the debut of “Platinum” Mike Perry (1-0). Perry was making his bare knuckle debut against former Ultimate Fighter alum Julian Lane (3-5).
Lane has plenty of bare knuckle experience as this was his eighth matchup in BKFC. Mike Perry finished out his UFC contract last year and received a nice bump in pay to throw his name in at BKFC.
These two men had a lot of viral moments leading up to the fight including a brawl a couple of months ago and Perry pulling out a bat at the press conference. Well, they got to settle the score on Saturday night.
In the first round, Perry was able to drop Lane with a big shot. Lane has his moments in the middle round, but throughout the night, Perry was landing the better shots. It was a close fight that I had 3-2 and that’s how the judges scored it giving Mike Perry a successful debut in BKFC.
BKFC title shot next?
Now, it’s clear that BKFC is still trying to become more popular in the main stream. We’ve seen them throw big money out at fun names that came from the UFC. Names like Mike Perry, Paige VanZant, Chad Mendes, and more.
Another former UFC fighter just happens to be the BKFC middleweight champion. That man would be Thiago Alves (2-0 BKFC). After the fight was over, Alves kept calling out Bare Knuckle for not mentioning him much on the broadcast despite being the promotion’s middleweight champion.
I think this will add a little fuel to the fire whenever they inevitably book the BKFC middleweight title fight between Alves and Perry. Clearly, that’s going to be what the promotion does next.
Again, they are in the business of trying to be more mainstream. When you’re playing that game, you’re constantly looking to get the bigger names you have in the biggest fights possible. Thiago Alves and Mike Perry is a fight that would generate interest and I fully anticipate that being next for both men.