EXCLUSIVE | Mike Perry says he knew Yancy Medeiros would withdraw from fight

Mike Perry was originally expected to fight Yancy Medeiros at UFC 226, but unfortunately, this plan hit a snag when Medeiros sustained an injury in training.

When Medeiros was forced out of the fight, he issued a heartfelt apology in an interview with ESPN, addressing Perry and their shared fans.

“I apologize to all my supporters and Mike,” Medeiros said. “Every fight I’ve taken, I’ve always had an injury I could work around or through. I’ll always go out on my shield. Unfortunately I can’t even take my shield to war. I hate thinking I’ve let anyone down. I was looking forward to giving the world and my opponent the best of me. On the real, my bad, Mike. Hate to let you and all your fans down. This is the last thing I wanted.”

Needless to say, Medeiros seemed quite distraught by the development — but Perry doesn’t seem to buy it. In fact, he says he expected Medeiros to withdraw all along.

Perry has recently been training at Jackson’s MMA in Albuquerque, New Mexico — the home gym of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone, who just defeated Medeiros. While Perry understands Medeiros’ injury could be legitimate, he also wonders if Medeiros didn’t want to fight another Jackson’s fighter so soon.

“My manager texted me,” Perry said of Medeiros’ withdrawal. “I was like, ‘fuck. I knew it. I knew it was gonna happen a long time ago when this camp started.’ Cause first of all, Jackson’s [MMA], we just beat [Medeiros] with Cowboy. And then, I’m training with Jackson’s. But, maybe it’s really, really broke, or whatever. Maybe he was sparring hard, and somebody cracked it. Things happen, you know? I have injuries too.”

Whatever the case, Perry assures that he would have done his best to fight through this injury, if it’d happened to him.

“That never stops me from showing up,” he said. “I do what I do. And, I go and fight, man, no matter who it is.”

“Show up on fight night. Step in that octagon, and perform,” Perry added.

The good news for Perry is that he quickly found a replacement opponent in UFC lightweight contender Paul Felder, who was recently robbed of a fight with James Vick.

What do you think of Mike Perry’s comments on Yancy Medeiros’ unfortunate UFC 226 withdrawal?

This article first appeared on BJPenn.com on 7/1/2018.