Max Griffin surprised almost everyone but himself with dominant win over Mike Perry

ORLANDO, Fla. – Very few people beyond Max Griffin thought he’d be hanging around after UFC on FOX 28 to talk to the media about the biggest win of his career.

Griffin (14-4 MMA, 2-2 UFC) may have been coming off a “Fight of the Night” performance in a loss, but he was taking on Mike Perry (11-3 MMA, 4-3 UFC) in Perry’s Central Florida backyard. And it was a Perry itching to get his hand raised again after suffering a loss, himself.

It made sense Griffin was a 3-1 underdog against the hard-hitting Perry … to everyone but Griffin, it seemed.

“I told you guys,” Griffin told MMAjunkie. “I did an interview with you guys earlier in the week, and I told you guys what I was going to do. He’s a good fighter, but he’s so predictable. He fights with his motion. He’s so obvious with what he’s doing, and he did exactly what we thought he was going to do. The only thing that was a little bit different was how hard of a head he had. I kind of busted my hand hitting him. I hit him with some shots … and he was just still there.”

Griffin’s unanimous decision win against Perry opened up the main card of UFC on FOX 28, which took place at Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. The card aired on FOX following prelims on UFC Fight Pass.

Griffin had Perry bleeding from above his left eye in the first minute of the fight. Not only did that give him confidence, especially as the bleeding worsened throughout the 15 minutes, but he believes it worked against his opponent.

“When you’re bleeding that early and see your own blood, it kind of takes something out of you,” Griffin said. “I talked to the doctor (after the fight), and he said he had nine cuts and he lost count of the stitches. His face was like hamburger. It was bloody, and it felt great.”

In his first four fights in the UFC, Perry now has been in there against two of the welterweight division’s most talked-about fighters, both for their skills in the cage and their personas outside of it.

In his promotional debut, Griffin lost by second-round TKO to Colby Covington in August 2016. His next fight out, he stopped Erick Montano in just 54 seconds in enemy territory in Mexico. But this past October, after 11 months on the sideline, he lost a decision to Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos – again in enemy territory in Brazil.

So going into Orlando, where Perry is based, probably didn’t seem that big of a deal.

“My coach, Dave Marinoble, told me to be relaxed: ‘Stay relaxed – be you,'” Griffin said. “The UFC hasn’t really seen what I can do, and I feel like they’ve seen a little bit more (now) what I can (do). I have a lot to do here. I’ve been doing this since I was 4 years old, and I knew I was better than him at everything. So I beat him everywhere, stuck to the game plan, and he fell right into it. He was the bull, I was the matador.”

It likely will be hard for Perry to be overlooked now, even if he is just 2-2 in the UFC. He said his current contract was up after Saturday’s fight, so now will be hoping for a new deal. By beating one of the division’s most talked-about knockout artists, he certainly couldn’t have hurt his cause.

“My goal in 2018 was to be ranked,” he said. “That was it. I just feel blessed to be able to go out and do what I know I can do. … To be able to execute, I thank God for letting me be calm in the face of battle, be calm in the face of danger. I love Orlando, but (the fans) didn’t like me too much. It’s part of the fight, but I hope I gained some fans. I’m a fighter. I think I’m on the way.”

For complete coverage of UFC on FOX 28, check out the UFC Events section of the site.