In an interview with journalist Ariel Helwani ahead of his May 16 Netflix MMA return against Nate Diaz, Mike Perry talked about his roots in Flint, Michigan.
Perry confirmed he was born in Flint and moved back and forth between Michigan and Florida throughout his childhood, splitting time between his father in Michigan and his mother and half-siblings in Florida.
“I went to kindergarten and then maybe first and second grade and then I came down to Florida, and then I went to like third, fourth and fifth grade and then I went back up there and I went to fifth grade in Flint,” he said, describing the constant relocations. “Then I came back down, went like sixth and seventh in Florida. And then back up in eighth and then back down in ninth.”
The last time he set foot in Flint, he was 17 years old, and he has not returned since. When Helwani asked why, Perry kept his answer simple.
“There’s nothing there for that. I have no family there,” he said. “My dad moved out of there. He’s in Tennessee.”
Asked whether he felt any desire to return someday or take his children there, Perry was just as direct. “No,” he said. “It’s just some streets, just some roads, some signs, and some old buildings.”
When the conversation turned to what growing up in Flint was actually like, Perry described the experience without nostalgia.
“It was normal to me,” he said. “When I was young, black kids are super athletic, super athletic, like 14 years old, dunking the basketball, got a full beard, looking like LeBron James and s**t. And this was all the kids I went to school with.”
He also recalled getting pushed around as a kid and learning from it.
“If I picked on someone, I probably picked on someone stronger than me or tougher than me and then they put me in my place and I got strong one day,” he said.
Comparing the two places he called home, Perry kept his tone matter-of-fact.
“Florida just has the beach,” he said. “It’s like the same thing, but then we could just drive to the beach in Florida and Michigan wasn’t really driving to the beach.”
When Helwani brought up the harsh winters in Michigan, Perry shrugged off the idea that they were memorable.
“I don’t think about that stuff,” he said. “When winter comes, you just put a coat on and go slide around in the snow.”
The tone shifted when Helwani raised the topic of Flint’s water crisis. Perry immediately recalled the warnings that dominated local news at the time.
“I remember the news saying there was boil water alerts and I was drinking water out of the garden hose, out of the front yard,” he said. “For real. Every day I’m f**king drinking that s**t.”
When Helwani noted that nothing appeared to have happened to him, Perry paused before offering a darkly humorous response.
“Maybe something did happen,” he said. “Maybe something’s wrong with me.”
He then closed with a line that stopped Helwani mid-conversation and summed up how he views his upbringing.
“There’s always that little piece of me that says that I’m a white boy from Flint, Michigan, and I’m f**king about that life,” he said. “And that lead water gave me Iron Chin.”
