Mike Perry re-signs with the UFC more than five years after leaving

Mike Perry has re-signed with the UFC, his manager Malki Kawa announced on Instagram on Friday, November 13. The post was shared with Perry's own account, and its caption included "Mike Perry has re-signed to the @ufc," according to MiddleEasy. It ended with this line, as quoted by MMA Junkie:

The king of violence is coming to an octagon near you!!!

The UFC had made no announcement of its own by Friday night. The post came hours after Perry showed up in the UFC Anti-Doping test history database with one test session logged for 2026, as HITC and MiddleEasy reported.

Ariel Helwani also reported the signing on X, citing Kawa. "No date set yet for his first fight back, I'm told," he wrote, as quoted by MiddleEasy.

Five years away

Perry's first UFC run lasted from 2016 to 2021: 15 fights and a 7-8 record. He debuted with a first-round TKO of Lim Hyun-gyu at UFC 202 and went on to beat Paul Felder, Jake Ellenberger and Alex Oliveira. He also lost to Donald Cerrone, Vicente Luque and Geoff Neal.

His last UFC fight was a unanimous-decision loss to Daniel Rodriguez on April 10, 2021. HITC reported that it was the last fight on his deal, and he'd lost four of his last five, per Uncrowned. He closed as a +110 underdog against Rodriguez, according to our page. He'd been -110 against Tim Means, and a -286 favourite when he beat Mickey Gall.

He then went unbeaten in bare-knuckle boxing with BKFC. Wikipedia) and Uncrowned list six fights, all wins, including stoppages of Luke Rockhold and Thiago Alves. He won BKFC's "King of Violence" title by stopping Eddie Alvarez in December 2023 and defended it against Jeremy Stephens on October 4, 2025. In between, he lost a boxing match to Jake Paul by sixth-round TKO in July 2024.

Back in MMA this year

Perry returned to MMA on May 16 at MVP MMA's Netflix card in Inglewood, against Nate Diaz. Diaz's corner stopped the fight after the second round. It was Perry's first MMA win since a decision over Gall in 2020, as SI noted.

On August 29, he lost by first-round TKO to Brandon Jenkins at Duel Arena 1 in Orlando. Jenkins had replaced Dillon Danis on about two days' notice, and Perry dislocated his shoulder in the fight. His pro MMA record is now 15-9, per theScore.

Perry told The Ariel Helwani Show in October that he was done with BKFC for at least two years, Uncrowned reported. He said he didn't expect to need shoulder surgery. "That bare-knuckle stuff is like a cheat code, I guess," he said, according to MMA Sucka. He added later: "And I'm ready for another challenge."

BKFC president David Feldman told MMA Fighting he'd been told Perry "got a great offer he couldn't refuse," EssentiallySports reported on October 31. Feldman added that the cost of bringing Perry back "doesn't make a lot of sense for us right now."

What comes next

Nothing is booked. Perry is 35 and unranked, and no weight class has been announced, though he spent his whole first UFC run at welterweight.

MMA Junkie says the UFC is rumoured to be heading to Orlando, Perry's home city, in early 2027. AgentMMA reported on November 2 that a February card there should feature Sean Strickland vs. Nassourdine Imavov. None of it is official, and Perry wasn't mentioned. He has fought for the UFC in Orlando before, losing a decision to Max Griffin at UFC on Fox 28 in February 2018.

We think the UFC should give him a set date and a full camp, not a short-notice slot. His last fight was against a replacement opponent taken on two days' notice, and it ended with a first-round loss and a dislocated shoulder.