Mike Perry wants a piece of Donald Cerrone after Max Griffin fight

After “Cowboy” Donald Cerrone scored an exciting first-round finish of Yancy Medeiros on Sunday night at UFC Austin, Mike Perry decided he wants to be next in line.

“Cowboy won last night, and I want to fight the Cowboy, baby,” Perry said during an in-studio appearance on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour.

But Perry doesn’t want to fight Cerrone for what would seem the most obvious reason: Cerrone vs. Perry would be a matchup of strikers that would likely be highly entertaining.

Perry also wants the welterweight bout because he’s under the impression he would have gotten a matchup with Medeiros had Cerrone not stepped in and claimed Medeiros as his foe.

“I actually got talked about with Yancy Medeiros right before Cowboy picked him up,” Perry said. “Cowboy got the veteran choice. He got to pick. Me or Yancy, I think it was something like that that went down. It was going to be on Orlando. I know Cowboy was, I wasn’t getting the Cowboy offer just yet, and they offered me Yancy, I was like that’s going to be awesome, then Cowboy stole him away from me.”

Instead, Perry will fight the unheralded Max Griffin at Saturday’s UFC on FOX 28 in Orlando. Both competitors made their UFC debuts at the legendary UFC 202, where Perry beat Hyun Guy Lim and Griffin lost to Colby Covington.

Perry’s star his risen faster in the time since, and Griffin has dropped two of his three UFC fights. But a meeting with Griffin at last year’s UFC Athlete Retreat led Perry to believe they’d eventually cross paths.

“I met him at the UFC Athlete Retreat, and we debuted at the same, I believe he debuted at 202 and he went to a decision with Colby [Covington] and I actually called out Colby that night. He called me trash and I said ‘oh that guy’s talking trash? I’ll pick that guy.’ Me and Max were playing cornhole together, he actually beat me. … He actually won the game and while we were talking and playing, he said ‘me and you are gonna fight day,’ and when he said that, I was like ‘maybe’ and I said ‘I’m looking past you, I feel like. I’m looking to fight bigger names,’ but everything happens for a reason.”

Perry, however, isn’t sweating the idea he’s taking on a fighter with lower visibility than him, because Perry lost his biggest fight to date last time out in a decision loss to Santiago Ponzinibbio in December.

“Max is in for a rude awakening,” Perry said. “It’s not going to be what he wants it to be. This is a gift, but if they’re handing them out, it’s my fault. I had a top-10 fight. I had the opponent and now that I have cardio, I had none in the Ponzinibbio fight and I still gave him hell.”

After that? “Platinum” would like a piece of the Cowboy, and if he does, he’s not going to tolerate the type of in-fight bro hugs that went down at UFC Austin.

“Cerrone knocks him down and he gives him a hug and it’s cool,” Perry said. “It wouldn’t have been cool if he didn’t get the knockout in the first or the second, or the third, but he got the knockout in the first round. So it’s like, Yancy’s a nice guy and they were both fans of each other since they’ve been in the sport so long. We’re blessed to do this, its a great job, but c’mon man, it’s too much. I’m trying to hurt you. I’ll hug you when I pick you up after.”