Mike Perry’s joke almost turned fatal and he credits Jacare Souza for saving him.
Perry is set to take on Alex Oliveira tonight (April 27) on the main card of UFC Fort Lauderdale. Perry will look to rebound from his submission loss to Donald Cerrone last year. While Perry is ready to throw down tonight, things could’ve taken a disastrous turn before fight night.
Perry Says Jacare Saved Him
Perry spoke to FOX Sports Asia ahead of UFC Fort Lauderdale. “Platinum” revealed that Souza saved him from accidentally hanging himself (via BJPenn.com):
“Jacare Souza is my hero. He is literally my hero man. I was playing around at the gym, I’m going to drop a story for you here. Alright, so there was like this rubber band hanging from the pull-up bar and this rubber band was like for workouts, it was a thick band. We were about to do filming with the ESPN crew and umm, I don’t know what I was thinking, but I put my head in this thing and was like I’m going to do a neck workout. And work on my ability to take a choke. So I lean forward and it wraps around my neck and so I flex myself so that I could hold on. And in two seconds, as soon as lean forward (and flex), next thing I know Alan, from the UFC, and Jacare Souza are there.
“Alan is like slapping me and they’re pouring water on me. But, they say Jacare, this while he was filming for ESPN, he was hitting a bag and he sees me, and Danielle was right next to me – she thinks I’m playing around, so she’s like ‘Mike quit playing’. So within two seconds I pass out and swing and then she’s hears a bang and she looks up and says ‘Mike stop playing’. So I had hit my face against the metal pull-up bar and I’m passed out. Plus I’m still hanging from this thing. I’m hanging myself at this point and Jacare sees me and runs over quick and pulls me out of this thing. Then they were like waking me up. When I came too I was like ‘Oh man, it was a bad joke. I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to scare everybody.’”
Souza will also compete on the UFC Fort Lauderdale card. He will go one-on-one with Jack Hermansson in the main event. Stick with MMA News for live coverage of UFC Fort Lauderdale.
