Jay Perrin Encourages Anyone Struggling with Mental Health to Seek Help, Especially Men

Jay Perrin knows what it means to struggle, and he isn’t afraid to say it as he seeks a way to shine in his next assignment. Perrin (10-5, 0-1 UFC) had a rough time in his promotional debut, which concluded with a decision loss to Mario Bautista at UFC Fight Night 201 in February. While things didn’t go according to his plans on that occasion, the former CES MMA and Cage Titans Fighting Championship 135-pound titleholder believes it was just a hiccup. “The Joker” plans to quickly dispatch Qileng Aori on the UFC 278 preliminary card. Ahead of his clash, Perrin shared a message of hope for people struggling with mental health issues, shouting out Paddy Pimblett along the way.

“I've somebody that's struggled with his mental health for a very long time, and I go outta my life,” Perrin said. “I've been around institutions, and I've given back to that community as much as I can and people with mental health issues and trying to encourage others to seek help over sitting there and wallowing. I think I buried four or five of my friends to themselves, and just doing that over and over, I can't bury any more. So if I can help everybody, I can just, by either just listening, helping them, set themselves up with a therapist, maybe checking in on them and all these tiny things that maybe don't seem like much, but are a lot in other people's worlds. That's the best way that I can say it. I just encourage everybody to seek help because there's nothing shameful, especially for men, to seek help and say, 'I’m struggling, and I need somebody to help me.’ When Pimblett did what he did, it touched me because it's so good to see somebody of that stature say something that important because it really is something that is prevalent in the world right now. Suicide rate is through the roof, and we gotta figure out a way to stop it. The only way to do that is to help each other.”

(00:00) Intro
(00:26) Training on Sunday
(01:06) The origin of his nickname, “The Joker”
(01:58) Comparing the Joker’s skills and his fighting style
(02:48) Losing to Bautista
(04:14) Walking out to the Octagon for the first time
(05:50) Preparing for Aori
(06:44) Training at Syndicate MMA
(08:05) His sparring partners
(09:43) His corner
(09:58) Picking Kamaru Usman vs. Leon Edwards
(10:55) Predicting his fight
(11:38) Discussing his t-shirt
(11:49) Being an advocate for mental health awareness
(14:08) Outro