After consecutive first-round finishes under the promotional banner established by Jorge Masvidal, it seemed like Jesse Ronson was lined up for something big. After back-to-back emphatic finishes in the Gamebred Bare Knuckle MMA cage, ‘The Body Snatcher’ was promised a chance to become the inaugural GBBKMMA welterweight titleholder with his next bout booking, but now the future of the company has some question marks attached to it.

When asked if it was a situation where he was making an inference that the promotion would be halted for the time being, or if someone from Gamebred Bare Knuckle MMA expressly told him that some fundraising hurdles would put a pause on the organization’s operations, Ronson said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“As for Gamebred, we were supposed to fight in February, but then they pushed it to March. Then after March, I was like, “Hey, what’s going on with March? Is it still going on?” Nope, not happening. “We’re going to look for June or July.””

“I’m like, “Perfect.” Started training for June or July. Then, Masvidal won’t run a show unless he can be there and do all the; it’s his show. I get it. But then Nate Diaz, if you remember when he was doing that Russian TUF in Thailand or whatever, he got jumped.”

“His whole team got jumped or whatever. So, Masvidal went over there and then I got slightly injured. So, I was like, “Oh, f**k I got to slow down.” Whatever. It’s perfect timing. Then I started messaging Dean Toole, who is the the CEO and matchmaker for GameBred.”

“He goes, “Look, dude, we’re doing some fundraising. So, we’re not going to do one-offs anymore. We’re looking to get enough money piled up. So this way we can announce a set schedule, whether it’s starting in September, whatever. We’re going to be like, “Okay, we have a show September, December, February, April of next year.””

“He’s like, “We want to bang off like an entire year’s worth of shows instead of just doing oneoffs and, you know, piecing it all together.” I’m like, “Oh, I completely understand. Just let me know when everything’s going well.” He goes, “With the way things are going,” he’s like, “Everything’s going well. It should be September.””

“So, I started messaging him when I was getting geared up to, you know, train for a September fight. And he goes, “Look, man, everything is going well. It’s just a lot more difficult than we thought it would be. We’re not getting as much money as we thought. I was like, I thought you said it was going well. He goes, there’s a difference between it going well and it going well.”

Ronson’s contractual term can lead him to return to Jorge Masvidal’s promotion should they return

Continuing to touch on what he knows about what’s to come for Jorge Masvidal’s efforts as a promoter in gloveless combat, Ronson continued [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“I was like, all right. I don’t understand, but sure. Then all the other people that I’ve talked to, like different, interviewers like you, and other fighters, and even other promotions like matchmakers, promoters are under the belief that Gamebred’s done at least this year. They may come back for one or two shows next year, but I know how Dean Toole operates.”

“He’s very efficient. He’s very smart. He got Island Fights and if you want somebody running your show, it’s Dean f***in Toole. I’ll tell you that much. He’s the man and he’s very efficient. And I know if Gamebred comes back, it’s not just going to be for one show unless Jorge is willing to drop a ton of money on it.”

“He wants to go, we’re going to do three shows this year, unless you just want to do a one-off mega show. But in that case, I had the BYB [BKB] guys write in the contract that I get an out because it was for the title. I know exactly how much money I’m going to get. I don’t know who I’m going to fight, but I said, I’ll only sign this four fight deal if you give me an out where if GameBred does come back, I can fight for them for the title.”

“They’re like, we’ll give you that one out. You can fight for the title and then you got to come back to us. And I was like, I appreciate it. Thank you very much. Because BYB [BKB], the bare knuckle boxing, isn’t paying as much as the gamebred title fight. It’s close, but you know, I’d still [laughs] like to be a world champ, bare knuckle. Canada’s first bare knuckle champion of any kind, whether it’s MMA or boxing, and make the money that goes along with it.”

“So, I do have that one out, but that’s the only out I got out of that 18-month deal. So, we’ll see what comes next year, but I need to stay busy. I need to; I don’t know what to do with myself if I’m not training.”

“It’s been super exciting getting back to boxing and just doing a lot of boxing training. I thought I’d be a step behind, but the way my skills have come back because, you know, I started with boxing way, way, way back. That was my first thing I started with as an amateur. It’s just phenomenal. I love it.”