{"id":829805,"date":"2026-07-28T20:53:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:53:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829805\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T20:53:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T20:53:10","slug":"bkb-surpassing-bkfc-as-the-battle-for-the-top-spot-in-bare-knuckle-heats-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/829805\/","title":{"rendered":"BKB surpassing BKFC as the battle for the top spot in Bare Knuckle heats up"},"content":{"rendered":"

Years ago, the idea of Bare Knuckle Boxing<\/a> seemed like a side-show more than legitimate combat sports. I, for one, cannot sit here and write this article saying that I was any different from the masses. <\/p>\n

Growing up as a huge boxing and MMA fan, I didn\u2019t even know about the world of bare knuckle. When bare knuckle started to gain some steam in the 2010s, I honestly looked at it the same way that I look at Slap Fighting today. <\/p>\n

However, my opinion on the combat sport has changed over time and I\u2019ve grown to have a true appreciation for it. Yes, it\u2019s completely raw and it\u2019s edgy, but that\u2019s the beauty of it. It\u2019s brutal and violent but in that sense, it\u2019s the most relatable combat sports to true life combat. <\/p>\n

Within this world of bare knuckle, you have two main promotions that have risen to the top. You have Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) and you have Bare Knuckle Boxing (BKB). Both of these promotions have made waves, but they\u2019ve gone about it in completely different ways. <\/p>\n

In the United States, you\u2019ve likely been more exposed to BKFC over the last few years, especially if you\u2019re a fan of MMA. The promotion has largely targeted past stars from MMA to gain marketshare and notoriety. <\/p>\n

BKFC has included some big MMA names such as Mike Perry, Yoel Romero, Darren Till, Chad Mendes, Jeremy Stephens, and Paige VanZant. In addition, the promotion has featured former UFC champions like Eddie Alvarez and Luke Rockhold. <\/p>\n

BKFC also has a major driving force behind them in one of the biggest combat sports stars of all time in Conor McGregor who became an investor and ambassador in 2024. <\/p>\n

Despite all this, it\u2019s somewhat felt like BKFC has stalled in ways. Yes, they do announce big fights here and there and they actually announced a major one yesterday in Darren Till \u2013 Yoel Romero. However, I just feel like they should be further along in terms of their business. <\/p>\n

Perhaps there\u2019s too many cooks in the kitchen or just a lack of direction, but it feels like they haven\u2019t secured the top spot in bare knuckle and actually, you can say that they don\u2019t even have that spot. While BKFC has done their thing, BKB has been hard at work securing that top spot in the world of bare knuckle boxing. <\/p>\n

BKB Toping the Bare Knuckle World<\/p>\n

BKB\u2019s history dates back to 2015 and they\u2019ve been around for a few years longer than BKFC. In 2024, BKB became the largest bare knuckle promotion in the world when there was a merger between BYB Extreme which was a US based promotion and BKB which originated in the UK.<\/p>\n

While BKFC has been working to secure media rights, it\u2019s BKB that has global broadcast reach across premium linear television and they\u2019ve become the most-viewed live sports property on TikTok. <\/p>\n

TikTok is becoming a major player in the sports streaming world and recently it was announced that Jake Paul\u2019s MVP promotions is going to be streaming Amanda Serrano\u2019s next title defense on the app. <\/p>\n

BKB has really aimed at legitimacy through boxing and their roster is really solid which has included the likes of Lee Selby, Paulie Malignaggi, Victor Ortiz, Yuriorkis Gamboa, the Vargas brothers, JoJo Diaz, Jade Masson-Wong, Alfredo Angulo, John Molina Jr., Lucas Browne, Cub Hawkins, and Marko Martinjak.<\/p>\n

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BKB also possesses the Police Gazette Diamond Belt which is widely recognized as the first championship belt awarded in American combat sports. Opposed to creating their own championship, the promotion has this title which dates back to the late 1800s. <\/p>\n

In terms of the action, both promotions really deliver a solid product with solid pacing. That said, what\u2019s remarkable about BKB is their Trigon ring which really forces the action and contributes to their near 90% finish rate which is almost unheard of in combat sports. <\/p>\n

Simply put, if you want to watch knockouts, it\u2019s the promotion for you. In speaking to members of the BKB team, they are really working hard behind the scenes to build up their name and while they\u2019ve historically really focused on boxing names, they are starting to also look at names with an MMA base. <\/p>\n

Recently, the promotion signed former UFC and PFL contender Aspen Ladd to a deal<\/a>. Ladd had fought once in BKFC and now she\u2019s making the jump over to BKB. BKB also recently signed executive Loren Mack who has a long history with the UFC, ONE FC, and the PFL as their CMO and Executive VP of Strategy. <\/a><\/p>\n

With that signing, I can promise you\u2019ll likely see more big MMA names start to trickle over to the promotion. In MMA, the UFC is the clear-cut number one promotion and no matter what the PFL or any other promotion does, the UFC will never be surpassed. <\/p>\n

That said, Bare Knuckle Boxing is really up for grabs and while BKFC has felt like it\u2019s been in the spotlight more in the United States over the past few years, I really feel like they are not in the drivers seat currently and that spot belongs to BKB. <\/p>\n

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\t\tMy name is Daniel, and I love MMA. My goal is provide the best possible coverage of the MMA … More about Daniel Cunningham<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Years ago, the idea of Bare Knuckle Boxing seemed like a side-show more than legitimate combat sports. I,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":829806,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,786,785,85],"class_list":["post-829805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=829805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/829805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/829806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=829805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=829805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=829805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}