Just between BKFC & BYB there will be nine championship fights over 11 weeks!
11 weeks plus 7 events plus 2 bare knuckle promotions equals NINE championship fights! That’s right bare knuckle fans, between August 3rd and October 12th, 2024, you will be treated to nine title fights. So, “knuckle up” because Bare Knuckle Nation is going to provide you with information on them all!
Starting with BKFC 63, Strawweight Champion Britain Hart (8-3) vs. world title challenger Taylor Starling (4-2). Hart and Starling both rank inside the top five of our pound for pound list. This is one of the most anticipated matchups in BKFC and it not only deserves to main event its own numbered event but it also deserves a massive crowd in attendance. Thanks to BKFC putting on the event in Sturgis, South Dakota during the famous motorcycle rally, it will have the eyes on it. David Feldman expects it to be the biggest live attendance in BKFC history! Here’s our full preview.
The following weekend, August 10th, BYB Extreme will join the mix with BYB 29 headlined by light heavyweight champion Cub Hawkins (5-0, 5 KO's) making the first defense of his gold against Gregoris Cisneros (2-1, 2 KO's).
Hawkins is eighth on our pound for pound list, has never lost in the Mighty Trigon, and has never seen the final bell. Cisneros is coming off two straight first round stoppages and his only loss in BYB came in his debut when he lost because of multiple strikes to a downed opponent. So, you could also say he’s never tasted true defeat.
Keeping it going with BYB, August 17th, possibly the biggest bare knuckle fight of 2024, the legendary Barrie Jones (10-0, 9 KO's) vs. the two-division champion LT Nelson (5-1-1, 5 KO's) at the top of the bill for BYB 30 fighting for the Police Gazette Diamond Belt. Two years ago, Jones beat the other long-standing bare knuckle legend Jimmy Sweeney twice, arguably cementing himself as the best in the world right now. But LT is 10th on our pound for pound and five years younger than the Welshman. Maybe he’s the one who could hand Jones his first defeat. To be clear though, if Barrie wins, he will likely be slotted in the top five of our rankings. We have a full preview coming on Thursday.
That’s just what August has in store. Kicking September off is another highly anticipated matchup between the bare knuckle GWOAT and BKFC Flyweight Champion Christine Ferea (8-1) taking on the number one contender Jade Masson-Wong (3-1), at BKFC 65, on September 6th. Ferea and Masson-Wong both sit inside our top five pound for pound and if you’re paying attention that means that four of our five best female bare knucklers are in action, against each other, in the span of a month. The only one that doesn’t have a fight coming up is Po Denman. We would like to think we spoke this Ferea vs Masson-Wong matchup into existence as we brought it up for the first time months before it got announced. Here’s our full preview.
BKFC goes back-to-back with championship weekends, on September 13th, the newly crowned Bantamweight Champion Alberto Blas (5-0, 5 KO's) defends his title against the undefeated, number two contender, Ryan Reber (5-0-1) at BKFC 66. A win for either man would put them in the top 10 of our pound for pound list. Here’s the official press release.
On September 21st, BYB gets back in action with BYB 31 for a championship doubleheader, headlined by the much awaited rematch of the 2023 fight of the year, Julio Tanori (3-0, 2 KO's) vs. Mark Irwin (3-1, 2 KO's) for the lightweight title. If Tanori wins, his next challenger might already be set in the form of Jon Barnard but if Irwin can get his belt back, a trilogy might be incoming.
Just in case you forgot how good the first one was, here you go.
The other title fight is the lightweight champ Paty Juarez (5-1) jumping up in weight to take on Khortni Kamyron (1-1-1) for the vacant super lightweight championship. Juarez is ranked number six on our pound for pound list.
That finishes off September and brings us to our last event. Another championship doubleheader but this time for BKFC as they make their debut in Spain on October 12th. In the main event we have the number four ranked lightweight Franco Tenaglia (3-0, 2 KO's) vs. number two contender Tony Soto (6-0, 3 KO's) for the vacant lightweight championship. In case you forgot, that was pound for pound star Luis Palomino’s old belt. So, he will surely have his eye on this matchup. Actually he’ll be keeping an eye on both the main and co-main fights.
The only man to beat Palomino in a BKFC ring, Welterweight Champ and our pound for pound number one Austin Trout (2-0, 1 KO) defends his gold for the first time against the very seasoned Rico Franco (9-2, 7 KO's), in the co-feature. Here is the full press release.
There you go the upcoming bare knuckle schedule. Nine championship fights. Eight pound for pound stars. And more that are on cusp of joining them. There is no better time to become a bare knuckle fan than right now! Stay tuned here on Bare Knuckle Nation to stay updated on all of these great events and more.
Photo courtesies: BKFC & BYB
Comments