Rising UFC welterweight Mike Perry believes that he is a fighter who’s reputation may precede him in more ways than one

In fact, it may be contributing to fighters avoiding him:

“Sometimes, I’ve got to watch what I say, because I scare these guys away,” Perry told MMAjunkie. “I don’t know if I scared Thiago. I might have. They [UFC] posted [my knockout of Jake Ellenberger] this week and said it was the ‘Knockout of the Week.’ He might have seen that and replayed it in his head.”

Perry is clearly agitated that Alves withdrew from the co-headliner at Saturday’s UFC Fight Night 116, given that “Platinum” claims that this fight has been scuppered on more than one occasion beforehand:

“[Alves] took away the recognition I was going to get for fighting him. It’s lose-lose for me,” Perry said. “I’m giving this guy every chance, and I’m getting almost nothing from it. But I’m here to fight, so I’m happy to have a fight. The long time is what’s making me upset. The long time that I took to prepare for this. I wanted to see that preparation unfold. I’ll still see it unfold, but it won’t be the same.”

Perry still sees a fight with Alves on the cards in the future.