Mike Perry will face Nate Diaz on May 16 in Los Angeles in a fight that will stream exclusively on Netflix, and the booking has already peeled him away from the bare-knuckle promotion that helped make him one of its biggest draws.
BKFC president David Feldman said he wished Perry the best after the announcement, but made clear the promotion had no role in the matchup. “Honestly we didn’t have much to do with that at all,” Feldman said, adding that he had something big planned for Perry that never materialized because Perry chose the Diaz fight instead.
Perry has been one of BKFC’s most successful fighters, winning all six of his promotional bouts and beating Michael Page, Luke Rockhold, Eddie Alvarez, Jeremy Stephens and Thiago Alves along the way. Ahead of Dirty Boxing’s DBX 6 in Miami, he said he was grateful for everything he has done in BKFC and everything BKFC has done for him.
He also said he still has two fights left on his BKFC contract and would be open to working with the promotion again after May 16 if the numbers, options and opportunities make sense. Perry said Netflix giving him another chance matters because he believes 100 million people will watch him, and he added that he loves the bare-knuckle style of fighting.
There is friction beneath the good manners. Feldman said the Diaz booking did not go the way he wanted, while Perry said the changing schedule around his career has made certainty hard to come by. “That’s not fair, bro, because there’s lots of talk – shit moves, like shit changes,” Perry said, noting that he had expected to fight every month in 2025 but ended up fighting in October instead.
For now, Perry is leaving BKFC with the door open and the clock running toward May 16. He said he and Feldman have had a lot of fun and, in his words, hopefully it is not over.
