BKFC founder David Feldman has told Mike Perry that he will need to take a ‘price reduction’ to compete in his $25million tournament.
Feldman announced in December that 64 fighters are expected to be involved in the eye-catching tournament, with the winner walking away with a huge $15m cash prize.
The rest of the $10m will be split between the final eight fighters left in the tournament.
Perry is one of the sport’s biggest stars, having defeated Michael Page, Luke Rockhold and Eddie Alvarez since making his debut with the promotion at the beginning of 2022.
The former UFC fighter beat Thiago Alves in his most recent outing in April at KnuckleMania IV, subsequently taking home a disclosed purse of $600,000.
However, if the 33-year-old wants to compete in BKFC’s newest draw, his initial cash incentive will be much, much lower.
“I mean, look, it would be a price reduction for him,” Feldman said on The Ariel Helwani Show.
“A purse reduction for him to fight in the opening rounds, so he’s going to have to risk that…
“[On Perry’s financial risk possibly paying off at the end of the tournament] It’ll really pay off.”
The tournament, promoted as the ‘World’s Baddest Tournament’, has the objective to find the toughest fighter on the planet.
Qualifying rounds are set to take place across five different continents as 10 events over nine to 10 months will make up all bare-knuckle fights to decide the winner.
Interestingly, Feldman has also asserted that all participants will have to ‘try out’ for the tournament, regardless of their previous achievements.
This means some of BKFC’s biggest names such as Perry,Alvarez, Jeremey Stephens and Mick Terrill would have to qualify the same way as any other candidate.
The BKFC founder anticipates a whopping 20,000 ‘real applicants’ to put their name forward for the tournament, which will then be cut down to 64.
There is yet to be an official announcement as to what weight class the tournament will shine a light on, however, reports have suggested that Feldman is leaning towards the 175 pounds to 275 pounds range
Perry has hinted that he would like to take part in the tournament, saying ‘I’m there’ via social media on Thursday.
This follows a verbal war between Perry and Conor McGregor, who became part-owner of BKFC in April 2024 and has been heavily promoting the fledgling combat sports league ever since.
McGregor posted on social media in July that ‘Platinum’ had been ‘released’ from his promotion after he was dropped several times in a sixth-round knockout loss to Jake Paul in boxing.
“Hey Mike you’re released and you can go and compete in your smelly dirty boxing championship thing, the smell of it, good luck,” he said.
Perry has since announced a new promotion called Dirty Boxing Championship, which combines MMA and boxing with smaller gloves and elbow strikes and ground-and-pound allowed.
Although BKFC never officially announced that Perry had been fired, the latter believes it may have played a part in the delay of his next fight booking.
”I’m just like fine, sure like offer me somebody, tell me what’s going on, tell me something,” he said on the Overdogs Podcast.
“I guess Conor really did fire me, what the f***, where’s my fight at?… [David] Feldman wished me luck, he wished us luck.
“He said, ‘Hey, I hope it goes well’. I don’t think they are threatened by us…
“I think they’re just trying to find the right thing that they can’t seem to quite make happen because they don’t want to be the guy fighting me with no gloves on after I f***ing lost that last fight with the gloves on. I’m f***ing pissed and I want this s***.”
BKFC’s first event of 2025 takes place on January 18 in California.
Then, just one week later, the bare-knuckle league will host their biggest event to date as two former UFC stars in Alvarez and Stephens headline KnuckleMania V.
BKFC world heavyweight champion and Newcastle native Mick Terrill takes on former UFC heavyweight Ben Rothwell in the co-main event.
Perry had suggested that he would’ve liked to take part in KnuckleMania V, which is scheduled to begin at 1AM on January 26.
However, Feldman explained why that wasn’t necessary.
“Yeah, I get it,” he said. “But we didn’t need him.
“Meaning, he’s a high-price fighter and we didn’t need that extra purse expense on this one.
“So we’re gonna do another one, a big show at the end of March, beginning of April and Mike will be back.”