Why Lorenzo Hunt doesn't see Mike Perry returning despite BKFC 91 appearance [Exclusive]

If it were up to BKFC president David Feldman, Mike Perry would have already made his way back into the bare-knuckle ring. Feldman continues to exude confidence that Perry, who remains under contract with his promotion, will return after a one-fight stint with Most Valuable Promotions MMA.

The 'King of Violence' has remained largely non-committal on his future since his recent detour. But after months of behind-the-scenes negotiations, Perry resurfaced at BKFC 91 in Naples, Italy, potentially signaling an imminent return to bare-knuckle boxing.

Perry's appearance ended with an in-ring face-off with Lorenzo Hunt, who called him out for the second consecutive fight after stopping Walter Pugliesi to win the inaugural BKFC ironweight title.

Despite the callout and face-off, Hunt is not sure that Perry will return to the BKFC.

The pound-for-pound king knows that Perry is good for business and has been a big part of BKFC’s growth in the last five years. Perry has yet to win a bare-knuckle world title, but he became the promotional ‘King of Violence’ with a second-round TKO win over Eddie Alvarez in December 2023. 

Yet, ‘The Juggernaut’ believes that Perry’s status as the ‘King of Violence’ is the leading reason why he will not return to the BKFC. Hunt called the promotional tactic “embarrassing” for Perry, whom he claims he has already “punked” without even fighting.

“I think that it's embarrassing to hang around on,” Hunt told KO on SI. “I think that they promoted him too fast as the King of Violence when there's this big Juggernaut dude in the room that's very, very violent. You know what I mean? So, it's hard to promote a guy as the King of Violence when he got punked by the guy who is actually very violent.”

Lorenzo Hunt “okay” with never fighting Mike Perry 

Perry did a fine job of defending his 'King of Violence' title with his dominant win over Nate Diaz in MVP. The 34-year-old hardly showed any holes in his game while torturing the fan-favorite Diaz for 10 minutes before the latter's corner stopped the fight.

However, Perry is coming up on a year since his last bare-knuckle fight, a fifth-round TKO win over Jeremy Stephens at BKFC 82 to defend the 'King of Violence' title. He has just two BKFC fights since the start of 2024.

A Hunt vs. Perry fight could be the biggest matchup the BKFC could offer in 2026, with the ‘King of Violence’ title and the No. 1 pound-for-pound ranking on the line. The matchup has always been teased to fans, including by Feldman at the beginning of 2026.

But despite everything potentially in play, Hunt still does not see the fight ever coming to fruition. Hunt called himself “too much” for Perry in a bare-knuckle boxing fight, which he admitted he was “okay” with.

“[The fight] was never there; it was a mirage,” Hunt said. “I know Mike Perry. Mike’s very smart. I know his camp, his wife, his family and his coach. They were never gonna let him fight me. Never. They would have took a vote, and the vote would have been, hell no. They were never gonna let Mike Perry fight me. And I'm okay with that. He's a family man. You know, I'm a family man. We know each other. We solid. I just think that I'm too much for him. Point blank.”