BoxRec

Eighteen months on from his devastating loss to Alexander Povetkin, heavyweight Mike Perez has whipped himself into unbelievable condition.

The 31 year-old, who is known for his technical ability and ring craft, has always been on the rounder side but judging by the recent photos shared by Boxeo Cubano, Perez is ripped up ahead of a comeback.

Perez was highly tipped as a world champion of the future when putting together an undefeated streak and claiming Prizefighter honours in the UK, although lost two and drew one of his last four bouts before taking a break.



A lot of the recent dip in form can be blamed on the mental scars from his fight with Magomed Abdusalamov in November 2013 when Perez unintentionally injured the Russian permanently following their brutal New York bout.

Is he coming back as a cruiserweight? He's only about 6'1 isn't he?

I think rippled might be stretching it a bit. He looks in better nick than he was but still quite round looking.

Looks like he lost about twenty pounds. That would make him around 220. He hasn't fought in a year and a half now.

hes in great shape / problem is mentally ....knocked out quick ....and severly hurt another mans life = mentally shot fighter

When I see these things I immediately think PED.

Gotta wonder how much the Magomedov fight affected his psyche.

I wish him the best.

BAD INTENTIONS wrote:When I see these things I immediately think PED.

He doesn't look abnormally fit. Dude is probably just motivated.

Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Why not Briggs ?

Think Perez will always be gun shy now

Enlightened-One wrote:Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Maybe....But, I consider him better than Chisora, Whyte, Molina, etc...etc...

He didn't look gun-shy against Takam and Jennings until he gassed in the second halves of those fights, and Povetkin caught him before he could do anything. He also seemed to have little issue with battering Darnell Wilson.

His draw and two losses just so happened to come against his three best opponents.

lefty wrote:I think rippled might be stretching it a bit. He looks in better nick than he was but still quite round looking.

That's far from quite round looking. Seeing as how "ripped" is a bodybuilding term, he's far from ripped but he has visible abs. The protruding belly in the lower pic looks like its taken mid breath.

BAD INTENTIONS wrote:When I see these things I immediately think PED.

What, losing body fat?

Enlightened-One wrote:Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Unless you know the man personally, that is pure speculation.
Utter unqualified gibberish from an online slaver

Unless you know something we dont

davie wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Unless you know the man personally, that is pure speculation.
Utter unqualified gibberish from an online slaver

Unless you know something we dont

Do you know very much about the Mago situation and the progression of Mike's career after that tragic bout?

Enlightened-One wrote:

davie wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Unless you know the man personally, that is pure speculation.
Utter unqualified gibberish from an online slaver

Unless you know something we dont

Do you know very much about the Mago situation and the progression of Mike's career after that tragic bout?

No

davie wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:

davie wrote:
Unless you know the man personally, that is pure speculation.
Utter unqualified gibberish from an online slaver

Unless you know something we dont

Do you know very much about the Mago situation and the progression of Mike's career after that tragic bout?

No

Well Google is a marvellous tool and it might be good idea to review Perez's career history, coupled with a bit of research relating to how the majority of other fighters' performances dipped significantly after they endured a similar situation.

ValMar wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:Perez is mentally "done" as a world-class fighter, regardless the state of his physique.

Maybe....But, I consider him better than Chisora, Whyte, Molina, etc...etc...

That may or may not be true, I'm not really sure either way, but Mike's performances after the Mago fight dipped for fairly understandable reasons, but none of them were related to his physical conditioning.

I really do hope that Perez can fully recover from his ordeal and can resurrect his failing career, but the history books tells us that it's unlikely (based on how the majority of other fighters performed after enduring similar circumstances).

It's like this davie: Perez shockingly didn't do as well when his opponents got tougher, with Takam, Jennings, and Povetkin being significantly better than anyone he's defeated.

His biggest problem has been his poor conditioning, which led to him seriously tiring in the second halves of his bouts with Takam and Jennings. He started those fights by throwing and landing punches freely, showing no signs that he was worried about hurting his opponents, but he didn't have the stamina to keep it up against that level of competition. After those bouts he dropped back down in levels to beat up Darnell Wilson, but then he stepped up again and was taken out by Povetkin before he could get going.

crusader wrote:It's like this davie: Perez shockingly didn't do as well when his opponents got tougher, with Takam, Jennings, and Povetkin being significantly better than anyone he's defeated.

His biggest problem has been his poor conditioning...

Are you genuinely suggesting that the Mago tragedy did not adversely affect Mike Perez’s career/in-ring performances?

Enlightened-One wrote:

crusader wrote:It's like this davie: Perez shockingly didn't do as well when his opponents got tougher, with Takam, Jennings, and Povetkin being significantly better than anyone he's defeated.

His biggest problem has been his poor conditioning...

Are you genuinely suggesting that the Mago tragedy did not adversely affect Mike Perez’s career/in-ring performances?

I for one believe that the Mago Tragedy must have adversely effected Mike mentally.

But to suggest that is the reason for his decreased performance is nothing more than a guess.

Perez best opponent before Mago was...who? Friday? Tye Fields? Travis Walker???

The Mago fight was a close, competitive fight despite the fact that Mago had broken bones from the end of the second or third round if I recall correctly. Takam, Jennings, and Povetkin were all far better opponents than anyone Perez had faced. He didn't have any trouble pulling the trigger against Darnell Wilson, who fit in with his previous body of work. So while I'm sure the Mago Tragedy has adversely affected Mike, he's also just not world class and has come up short in his only forays up.

punchoutsb wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:

crusader wrote:It's like this davie: Perez shockingly didn't do as well when his opponents got tougher, with Takam, Jennings, and Povetkin being significantly better than anyone he's defeated.

His biggest problem has been his poor conditioning...

Are you genuinely suggesting that the Mago tragedy did not adversely affect Mike Perez’s career/in-ring performances?

I for one believe that the Mago Tragedy must have adversely effected Mike mentally.

But to suggest that is the reason for his decreased performance is nothing more than a guess.

So it seems we share the same opinion.

In terms of my alleged "guess", you're absolutely correct, but it's a highly-educated guess, since it's probably very easy for most of us to cite the names of multiple fighters whose in-ring performances inevitably suffered as a direct consequence of these men having inflicted fatal, life-threatening or life-changing injuries on another human being.

Enlightened-One wrote:

punchoutsb wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote: Are you genuinely suggesting that the Mago tragedy did not adversely affect Mike Perez’s career/in-ring performances?

I for one believe that the Mago Tragedy must have adversely effected Mike mentally.

But to suggest that is the reason for his decreased performance is nothing more than a guess.

So it seems we share the same opinion.

In terms of my alleged "guess", you're absolutely correct, but it's a highly-educated guess, since it's probably very easy for most of us to cite the names of multiple fighters whose in-ring performances inevitably suffered as a direct result of thesr men having inflicted fatal, life-threatening or life-changing injuries on another human being.

It's also highly-educated to guess that his performances suffered because he stepped up in competition. It's more easy to cite the names of fighters whose in-ring performances suffered after stepping up in class.

punchoutsb wrote:

Enlightened-One wrote:

punchoutsb wrote:
I for one believe that the Mago Tragedy must have adversely effected Mike mentally.

But to suggest that is the reason for his decreased performance is nothing more than a guess.

So it seems we share the same opinion.

In terms of my alleged "guess", you're absolutely correct, but it's a highly-educated guess, since it's probably very easy for most of us to cite the names of multiple fighters whose in-ring performances inevitably suffered as a direct result of thesr men having inflicted fatal, life-threatening or life-changing injuries on another human being.

It's also highly-educated to guess that his performances suffered because he stepped up in competition. It's more easy to cite the names of fighters whose in-ring performances suffered after stepping up in class.

So you're actually saying that the consequence of the Mago fight only has a trivial effect on Perez's career?

Have you ever walked a similar path as Perez by remaining mostly unaffected by the fact you've maimed another human being?

Is it a coincidence that Perez had a 100% perfect record up until and including the Mago bout, but only managed to win one of his next four fights?

I don't believe you're articulating a sincere opinion.