By Nishant Zende

Copyright sportskeeda

Mike Perry is undoubtedly among the most well-known personalities in the combat sports world. After his journey in the UFC came to an end, Perry signed with the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) in October 2021 and quickly became the promotion’s marquee superstar.Perry has an impressive 5-0 record in the BKFC, with high-profile wins against opponents like Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Eddie Alvarez, and Luke Rockhold. Ahead of his upcoming fight against fellow UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens in October, let’s take a look at why Perry was apparently fired from the BKFC by Conor McGregor.Was Mike Perry fired from the BKFC?Despite Mike Perry becoming the face of the BKFC over the past few years, he wasn’t immune to Conor McGregor’s wrath. For context, McGregor became a co-owner of the bare-knuckle fighting promotion last April and quickly got involved in the company’s operations.Perry lost a boxing match to Jake Paul via sixth-round TKO last July. This seemingly irked McGregor, and the Irishman soon took to social media to fire Perry from the BKFC while hurling expletives at the ex-UFC star’s Dirty Boxing Championship promotion. He wrote:”Hey, Mike [Perry] you’re released and you can go and compete in your smelly dirty boxing championship thing, the smell of it, good luck. You’re fired. @bareknucklefc.”Perry soon responded to McGregor’s comments and dismissed the notion of the Irishman having the power to remove him from the promotion. In a post-fight interview (via @ChampRDS on X), he said:”He doesn’t have a promotion, ’cause me and him are both owners of the BKFC. So he can’t fire me. We can fight in bare-knuckle, look at me. I lost to Jake Paul. Why don’t you go fight Jake Paul and box him with gloves on? I think it would be worse than McGregor vs. Mayweather.”McGregor soon issued a response to Perry dismissing him and doubled down on his statement. The Irishman insisted that ‘Platinum’ no longer had a spot on the BKFC roster and urged him to accept his removal from the promotion. Intriguingly, Perry admitted that he may have been truly fired by McGregor in January this year and sought clarity about his next fight in the BKFC.After months of speculation, Perry was confirmed to make his BKFC return in October, and McGregor made sure the UFC veteran knew who was in charge. At a press conference held in July (via @SpinninBackfist on X), McGregor “welcomed” Perry back to the BKFC in a fiery tirade and said:”You’re welcome back, because I welcomed you back. October 11th is your date, and you’ll dance for me, you’ll dance for the owner, and then we can talk… Michael Perry, the return of ‘Platinum’, and we’ve got some hell of an announcement for an opponent for you… and he is going to throw down with you, in front of me for my viewing pleasure, and then I’ll decide if you’re worthy.”