Mike Perry (-275)
Age: 26
Nationality: American
MMA Record: 11-2
UFC Record: 4-2
Notable Wins: Jake Ellenberger, Hyun Gyu Lim
Notable Losses: Alan Jouban, Santiago Ponzinibbio
Last Fight: Unanimous decision loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio
Fighter Profile: Perry is a very powerful striker and has legitimate one-punch KO power. He has four brutal knockout wins in the UFC and all of his career wins have come via knockout. He’s a very tough, durable fighter and both of his losses have come by decision. The UFC has mostly matched him up with strikers so we’ve seen he can stand and bang but we haven’t really seen him matched up against a wrestler yet. In the future I’d be curious to see if he can stop a takedown or not. But in the kind of favorable striking battles the UFC keeps putting him into, he has a very good chance of stopping his opponents early. Otherwise he can go deep against more technical strikers and lose a decision. I’m not sure Perry will ever be a title contender but I definitely think he’s an exciting fighter in the welterweight division and he has some personality too.
Max Griffin (+225)
Age: 32
Nationality: American
MMA Record: 13-4
UFC Record: 1-2
Notable Wins: David Mitchell
Notable Losses: Colby Covington
Last Fight: Unanimous decision loss To Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos
Fighter Profile: Griffin has had three fights in the UFC and his performances have resulted in a mixed bag so far. In his debut he was matched up with Covington and was taken down and beat up badly on the ground. Considering how good Covington is, that’s not a bad loss by any means. His knockout win over Erick Montano was a big confidence booster for him, but then again it’s not like Montano is a good fighter. And in his last fight against dos Santos, he did show some heart and durability but once again took a ton of damage. Griffin clearly has some power and he’s not afraid to mix things up, but he’s so defensively flawed that it’s hard to ignore that. His cardio is also an issue that needs to be addressed. He has knockout power, but it’s hard to overlook all of his flaws.
Fight Breakdown: This should be a banger of a fight and the UFC made a good call booking this as the opening main card bout. Both men have been talking trash to each other on social media and now each man has the opportunity to show who the better fighter is. Both men are extremely aggressive fighters but both have flawed defense. The X-factor in this fight is Perry’s one-punch KO power. Not many fighters have the pure punching power Perry has, and Griffin has shown some durability issues in the UFC. I don’t expect it to be easy, and he may have to eat some shots to give them, but I think Perry has the better chin and I’ll take him to finish Griffin via TKO in what should be a firefight for as long as it lasts.
Prediction: Mike Perry via TKO
