A week before Mike Perry and Darren Till got into a yelling match cage-side at UFC Fight Night 118 following Till’s knockout win over Donald Cerrone, “Platinum” had inked a fight contract to face Santiago Ponzinibbio at UFC on FOX 26 on Dec. 16, 20017 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

The original plan for Perry, though, was to challenge the winner of Till vs Cerrone at UFC 219 on Dec. 30.

“The contract was signed, and I tried not to sign a contract before I went out because we wanted to get the Donald Cerrone fight on December 30 if he won,” revealed Mike during a recent appearance on The MMA Hour.

Ultimately, Perry wasn’t to confident in “Cowboy’s” chances against Till -- and he was right — which is why he opted to ink his contract to fight a ranked opponent instead of an unknown fighter like Till.

“Even Donald asked me about it before he fought Till, He was like, ‘Why did you sign that contract? We wanted you December 30th.’ I didn’t want to tell him out there in Poland that I signed the contract because my manager wanted Cerrone but I told him he wouldn’t beat this undefeated kid,” he added.

“The kid is going to beat him. I’m going to fight the undefeated kid. He said, ‘Well then let’s get this ranked opponent first because no one knows who Darren Till is.’ He took all of Cerrone’s ‘fan and everyone knows who he is now.”

With Darren now stepping into the limelight, Perry is all for a fight against the Brit, assuming he doesn’t move up to Light Heavyweight before then.

“If he wants to fight, I want to fight, it should happen. But it’s no big deal for me to go out here in a month and smash Santiago Ponzinibbio to get this money and show everybody just one more time that I’m not playing no games out here.”

Furthermore, Perry isn’t opposed to going to Liverpool, England -- Till’s stomping grounds — to face him, as he says he won’t take the route Colby Covington took and start a near-riot by insulting foreign lands.

As for his matchup against Ponzinibbio, “Platinum” is confident he will rock the Argentinian come fight night, and then possibly turn his attention to the winner of the upcoming scrap between Jorge Masvidal and Stephen Thompson at UFC 217.

“You’re going to enjoy that fight. Styles makes fights. That boy likes to throw hands. I’m telling you, I am going to rock that boy’s chin. Good night!”

It’s a very interesting time in UFC’s welterweight division, indeed.