{"id":479332,"date":"2026-02-16T22:45:08","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:45:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479332\/"},"modified":"2026-02-16T22:45:08","modified_gmt":"2026-02-16T22:45:08","slug":"gamebred-bareknuckle-mma-announces-500k-heavyweight-lightweight-tournaments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/479332\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA Announces $500K Heavyweight, Lightweight Tournaments"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA is roaring back to life with an ambitious double-tournament series offering $1 million in total prize money across two weight classes.<\/p>\n

The promotion announced plans for simultaneous 16-fighter tournaments at heavyweight and lightweight, each carrying a $500,000 grand prize. The tournament series launches April 10 in the Dominican Republic, followed by a second event May 1 in Miami, with all four rounds of both brackets scheduled throughout 2026.<\/p>\n

The announcement marks Gamebred’s return after a 17-month hiatus since its last event on November 15, 2024. Masvidal revealed the extended break was necessary to secure funding for a full year of competition.<\/p>\n

Heavyweight Tournament Kickoff Confirmed<\/p>\n

Four heavyweight matchups for the April 10 opener have been confirmed:<\/p>\n

Anthony Smith vs. Chase Sherman<\/p>\n

Guto Inocente vs. Mohammed Usman<\/p>\n

Alexandr Romanov vs. Nikolay Kovalenko<\/p>\n

Bruno Cappelozza vs. Todd Duffee<\/p>\n

The remaining four heavyweight bouts and all eight lightweight tournament matchups will be announced in the coming days. Smith’s inclusion marks a surprising return to competition<\/a> for the former UFC light heavyweight title challenger, who retired in April 2025 and has since worked as a UFC broadcast analyst.<\/p>\n

Masvidal: Filling a Void in Combat Sports<\/p>\n

Speaking to MMA Junkie Radio, Masvidal positioned Gamebred as addressing a gap in the current combat sports landscape while prioritizing fighter compensation.<\/p>\n

“I don’t mind taking the loss (from a smaller gate) for making a huge statement online,” Masvidal explained. “We’re giving as much money as we can to the fighters. Really, who’s doing anything right now? It’s just worked out perfectly.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA is roaring back to life with an ambitious double-tournament series offering $1 million…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":479333,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,194090,638,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-479332","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mma","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-fighting","11":"tag-gamebred-mma","12":"tag-mma","13":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=479332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/479332\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/479333"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=479332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=479332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=479332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}