Welterweight Mike Perry has a new opponent for Saturday’s UFC Fight Night in Pittsburgh but he still hasn’t seemed to forgive his originally scheduled opponent – Thiago Alves – for pulling out of their contest and throwing things into disarray for Platinum for a couple days. Both Alves and Perry live and train in Florida, which was recently hit by Hurricane Irma.
Perry reportedly left the state early for Pennsylvania in order to assure he would be in position to fight this Saturday, while Alves reportedly decided to stay at home with his family and not leave early. Ultimately, Alves did not make the trip at all, and reports surfaced from his team that he was stranded in Florida.
While deciding to stay with one’s own family during a hurricane seems natural and understandable, and while it also seems possible that Alves could have had subsequent difficulty getting up North because of the storm, Perry told the Extra Rounds Podcast, hosted by Mike Dyce and myself, that he isn’t buying Alves’ story.
That’s bulls***, he said.
I came from Florida, we got more f***ed up than he did. There are so many people here from South Florida. I was just talking to [Floridian] Michael Johnson. [Alves’] coaches from [American Top Team] down there, are here today. They flew up yesterday when he was supposed to. He is feeding y’all bulls***.
In the end, Perry says that Alves is simply unwilling to face the KO threat that the abrasive fighter poses in the cage. Of course, the notion that the former title-challenger is too afraid to fight Perry or anyone seems without merit, but Perry sounded heated and convinced of it in the wake of all the tumult.
He don’t want to fight, he doesn’t want to retire yet and I was going to put him to sleep. It’s simple as that, Perry continued.
The 26-year-old certainly doesn’t sound as though he’d be eager to sign on to fight again with Alves at a future date. Alex Reyes is stepping up on short-notice to fight Perry this Saturday, and Perry didn’t exactly sound like he’s expecting to fight Alves afterward
On booking another fight with Alves:
“Does he get the opportunity to fight me after I smash this guy?” Perry asked, rhetorically.
“They need to get me a top-10 opponent after this. This is bullshit. Three days and I get some chump everybody expects me to beat. I think he is a tough guy cause he took the fight, he is a black belt and must have some type of game plan for me but it’s not going to matter. I’m going to smash this guy, simple as that.
“So, why would I take a fight with Thiago again and expect him to pull out three days before, you know what I mean? Maybe the fight will happen, maybe it won’t, but I think I deserve a top-10 after this because I’m giving somebody a shot and they need to give me another shot.”
About the author:
Elias Cepeda is a host of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Rounds Podcast, a staff writer at FloCombat, and has a weekly column for The UG Blog.
