Mike Perry dished out a ton of damage as he bloodied and battered Nate Diaz across two rounds before the fight was stopped due to some truly gruesome cuts.
From the start of the fight, Perry was gunning for the knockout and he was connecting with power punches, elbows and knees as Diaz almost looked overwhelmed at moments, although he never backed down in the exchanges. A final knee put Diaz down as the second round came to a close but as he went to his corner, the blood pouring down his face told the real story in the fight.
Despite the best efforts of his cut man, Diaz had blood in his eyes and there was no way he could continue as his corner stopped the fight to prevent any further harm from being done.
“Look I landed really good shots and I was hitting,” Perry said after arguably his biggest win to date. “I was getting a little tired but that’s part of it. He’s the toughest f*cking guy out there. He’s super tough. We got the job done. I’ve got to be happy I had success. I’m grateful to be here. Blood was spilled.”
Prior to the stoppage, Perry came out firing right away trying to overwhelm Diaz in the opening round. Diaz avoided taking too much damage and started stabbing away at Perry with his lead jab.
A brief grappling scramble saw Diaz look for a submission but Perry escaped to get back to his feet. Perry then attacked with a nasty body shot as he stayed on the attack and Diaz was showing the wear and tear from the punishment he was absorbing through the first few minutes.
But then Diaz woke up and started connecting with that same lead jab with several shots in succession as the welterweights were just going to war until the bell sounded.
On the restart, Perry was swinging with huge, heavy shots and Diaz returning fire with those same straight punches that were connecting every time. Perry seemingly hurt Diaz with a barrage of strikes but the Stockton, Calif. native just absorbed the damage and threw right back at him.
Perry caught Diaz with a knee up the middle before tossing him to the ground where he started hammering away with punches before allowing his opponent to get back up again. Diaz was covered in blood from multiple cuts sustained during the fight but he was still engaging with Perry in every exchange.
Another huge knee from Perry ended the second round as Diaz fell to the ground with blood covering his entire face. After getting cleaned up, Diaz had a nasty gash on the top of his forehead and another on the right side of his face.
That was enough for his coaches to stop the fight and even Diaz couldn’t complain about the ending because he couldn’t see with blood pouring into his eyes.
“He did everything I expected him to do,” Diaz said about Perry. “I think I broke my finger in the first few seconds. I’m going to come back and get his f*cking ass. Ain’t nobody beating me twice, motherf*cker. I had blood in my eyes. [The stoppage is] all good.”
It was a great win for Perry in his return to MMA and now he’s got all kinds of options available to him after dispatching Diaz. He could obviously stick with MMA or return to bare-knuckle fighting where a showdown against Darren Till could be awaiting him in BKFC but he has plenty of reason to celebrate after his latest victory on Saturday.
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