Mike “Platinum” Perry got on everyone’s radar with a ridiculous, laughable attempt at getting in his opponent, Hyun Gyu “The Ace” Lim’s head during the UFC 202 weigh-ins. Perry made up some ground in the “not a complete idiot” runnings by knocking out Lim in the first round.
However, after a cursory check of corner audio on Fight Pass and some eagle-eared listening, Perry’s off worse than he started. A corner member, while hyping up Perry before the fighter introductions, says,
“That’s your post-winner dinner. He’s got nothing for you, Mike. He can’t even open his motherf*cking eyes, boy.”
Just in case you’re curious as to why this is important, Lim is Korean. It might not have been an actual ethnic slur, but someone on Perry’s team clearly used racist language against an Asian opponent.
Perry trains at an official UFC gym in Florida with fellow UFC fighter Alex Nicholson. There are some thoughts that Nicholson was the voice behind the words, but after listening to some of Nicholson’s interviews, I’m not entirely convinced one way or another. Regardless of who said it, that corner should face some sort of disciplinary action, because while these people are fighting each other, there’s no need and no place for racism, and as is more often the case, homophobia.
