After the leading contenders of the day refused to fight him, Perry reclaimed the English title until Tom Sayers defeated him in a championship bout in 1857.

[6] According to one source "he was well known in the neighbourhood of Battersea Fields and Chelsea as a "lumping lad" who, despite the drawback of 'a K leg,' could hit, stop, and use his 'fives' with formidable effect".

[5] According to one account of the second part of the fight: "on squaring elbows there was a good deal of sparring and Perry dodged left and right.

The fight was prolonged for six rounds more, during which Perry had it all his own way, punishing Barney terrifically; still the poor fellow came up as game as a rhinoceros, and would not give in until his seconds, seeing he had not a chance, cried 'enough'".

According to one source: "a party of Birmingham boxers, having among their number one Ben Spilsbury (not Charley who fought Johnny Broome) being in the town of Tipton exhibiting the art, young Perry put on the mufflers with that professional".

[5][6] It was reported of Spilsbury: "after taking some little liberties with the Tipton in the opening rounds, for which he occasionally caught a fearful right-handed visitation, and was rallied down, Spilsbury kept so completely a la distance as to deprive the contest of any interest, and finally, at the end of the 19th round, "cut it," leaving "The Slasher" in possession of the field and the stakes".

[6] After the fight it was noted "Perry, with Parker, became the "lions" of the neighbourhood; the Fountain Inn, at Tipton, the Slasher's headquarters, being crowded by the Fancy of the Midlands at their benefit on the ensuing Monday.

[6] Broome attempted to set up a match with a boxer named Randall from Devon who was backed by the publican, Ben Burn.

[12] The American accompanied Caunt on his return to England in 1842, when "Freeman during several months, not only exhibited at the Queen's Theatre, Lyceum, Olympic, Adelphi, Victoria, and other theatres, halls and assembly rooms, where a great feature of the entertainments was a caricature of boxing by the giant and Big Ben, but the non-sporting papers were flooded with ridiculous paragraphs, several of them offensively setting forth the wonderful powers and prowess of the American gladiator.

"[5] The first fight between Perry and Freeman took place on 6 December 1842 at Sawbridgeworth and was declared a draw as darkness descended on the boxers after 70 rounds of boxing.

The rematch finally took place on 20 December of the same year, and was held at Cliffe Marshes, Gravesend, where Freeman was declared the winner after 38 rounds as Perry dropped to the floor without being struck by his opponent.

[5] A match was arranged for 22 August 1843 with the fighter William Renwick of Liverpool, the fight to take place near Newcastle upon Tyne.

According to the editor of the sporting paper "Bell's Life": "in this affair he showed considerable improvement upon his former exhibition, and inflicted severe punishment with his right upon Parker".

[16]: 180–181 The rematch to decide the contest was delayed as Johnny Broome produced a medical certificate stating that Perry had received a broken jaw in the first fight and had been treated for a fractured arm in November of that year.

[6] An observer of this final fight with Parker said of Perry: "He displayed an amount of judgment, coolness, science, and generalship which no one, not even those who knew him best, had previously credited him with, and these qualities, added to his immense bulk and strength, rendered him irresistible".

Broome also wrote to the editor of the sporting paper Bell's Life in August 1853, when he "intimated his intention of retiring from the Prize Ring".

An eyewitness gave the following description of the scene at London's Fenchurch Street Station as the fight goers gathered: "The frantic, noisy, blackguardly rabble surging round the entrance to the station : the crowd of swells in fashionable shooting -jackets and cloth caps all pushing their way with fierce eagerness to the ticket-office, as hansom after hansom disgorged its fare : the awful fight for tickets : the excited mob of gentlemen, publicans, tradesmen and pugilists on the platform – the desperate attempts to repel the assaults of the roughs who made most determined charges at the doors : the terror of the non-sporting passengers, for it was an ordinary train – women screaming and almost fainting with fright as swarms of big, broken-nosed men invaded the carriages in which they were peacefully seated".

[23] Around this time, until his defeat by Sayers, Perry was the landlord of the pub "The Champion of England" in Spon Lane, West Bromwich.

[24][25] After losing the title Champion of England in 1857 to Tom Sayers[26] he became landlord of the Bricklayer's Arms, Walsall Road, Wolverhampton.

[27] He died at his home, Old Tollgate House, Bilston of alcoholism and pulmonary congestion on 24 December 1880[1][28] and was buried at St John's Church, Dudley.

[21] At the time of the Paddock fight in 1850, he was described as having "one of the most robust, symmetrical, and herculean busts, with arms to match, that ever sculptor imagined, or gladiator exhibited".

[4] A bronze statue by Bill Haynes stands in the Coronation Gardens, Tipton,[32] yards away from the Fountain Inn public house, which was once his headquarters.

The Fountain Inn received Grade II listed building status[33] in 1984 on recognition of its association with Perry, who regularly fought fellow boatmen on the many local canals in order to be first through the lockgates.

[35] Arthur Conan Doyle's story "The Croxley Master" describes a boxing match in which a young medical man defeats a veteran boxer with a "K-shaped" leg like Perry's.