Knockout puncher Parker Porter, a former UFC fighter ripping through Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship\u2019s heavyweight division, says the sport of bare knuckle is closer to boxing than to mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n
Bare-knuckle has enjoyed a new wave of popularity following its sanctioning in Wyoming in 2018, ahead of subsequent legalizations in other states, too. BKFC is typically regarded as the dominant fight firm in the space, and is helped no doubt from an exciting heavyweight division among depth in other weight classes, too.<\/p>\n
A 23-fight veteran in MMA, Porter is part of a new wave in bare-knuckle and returns to toe the line March 28 at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Connecticut, atop the BKFC Fight Night card airing on DAZN. And though he brings an MMA striker\u2019s skillset to the ring, he believes it remains a boxing-adjacent combat sport.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think it\u2019s more closely aligned with the boxing background,\u201d he told Boxing Social. \u201cBut I think having some MMA gives an advantage because it\u2019s a different game when you involve the clench-fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n
Boxing Social heard this first through BKFC champion Austin Trout, a former world-level fighter in gloved boxing. Trout told us he had to drill clinch-fighting techniques, and develop more solid upper-body strength, to level up in this area, while retaining the techniques that made him a star in boxing. His record in BKFC is 5-0 (2 KOs) and he fights again soon, hoping to add two-weight champion status to his late-career success in BKFC.<\/p>\n
For Porter, it\u2019s similar. \u201cObviously in traditional boxing, I can\u2019t tie and grab the back of your head,\u201d he said. \u201cOr wrap an arm, or whatever it may be that you\u2019re doing to start throwing shots. That\u2019s highly taboo in traditional boxing. So, you know, that little piece of the MMA background is why, I think, you\u2019re seeing some of these guys make the jump over to bare knuckle boxing, versus the other way with the pure boxers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Parker fought eight times in the UFC, and has a record of 14 (6 KOs and 3 Subs) against 9 defeats in pro MMA. He has, though, stormed to a flawless record of 3-0 (3 KOs) in bare knuckle, hoping to advance that to 4-0, and embark on a run that makes a title shot a foregone conclusion.<\/p>\n
Should he beat Haze Wilson in BKFC this weekend, a fight against another former UFC star, Ben Rothwell, who recently relinquished the BKFC heavyweight title to Andrei Arlovski, could loom on the horizon. \u201cHe\u2019s definitely in my crosshairs,\u201d Porter said of that prospective fight.<\/p>\n
Beat Wilson, and someone like Rothwell, then he\u2019d have made the next-best claim after Leonardo Perdomo for the title, as the 11-0 (11 KOs) Cuban obliterated his most recent opponent and then stared down Arlovski, indicating that title fight might be next.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going on that same tear,\u201d Porter said of Perdomo\u2019s run. \u201cI\u2019m not going to be stopped until I get to the belt, and even then you\u2019re not going to stop me,\u201d he finished.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Knockout puncher Parker Porter, a former UFC fighter ripping through Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship\u2019s heavyweight division, says the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":559847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[444],"tags":[49,48,641,638,82],"class_list":["post-559846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-fighting","tag-mma","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559846","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=559846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/559846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/559847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=559846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=559846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=559846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}