Though the universe has given him many reasons to walk away, Connor Tierney has always chosen to run towards a fight.
BKFC welterweight Connor Tierney, who makes his ring return this weekend against Jonny Graham with the UK title on the line, is unlike many fighters in the sport. Bare knuckle is chock full of people who have started to fight out of necessity, or have continued their career without gloves out of necessity—financial, emotional or otherwise. In Tierney’s case, it’s always been out of sheer passion.
That’s not to say that Tierney grew up in a posh environment, however. Tierney proudly represents Weoley Castle, a neighbourhood in Birmingham, England, where he describes himself as a “street kid.” He spent his days mostly outdoors, and as is tradition in the UK, would take part in “straighteners,” bare knuckle street fights, to settle disagreements and feuds from a relatively young age on. Having started boxing at the age of eight, Tierney obviously fared quite well, and did so in his amateur boxing career as well, taking part in over forty unpaid bouts.
After a loss in his final amateur bout in 2018, Tierney took a brief reprieve from the sport, as he entered a full-time career as a quantity surveyor in the construction industry. The job earns him a steady annual salary of £50,000, enough to provide for himself and his three children. However, the gravitational pull towards a scrap never left him, nor did his desire for fame. Tierney has said that his only dream as a kid was to be a famous boxer, but after his amateur career didn’t net him any international success, he realized going the conventional route wouldn’t get him to his goal.
He spotted an ad online for a bare knuckle Prizefighter tournament at the O2 in Greenwich, and decided to send a highlight reel of him in action to the promoters. He was given a spot in the tournament, and dazzled in his debut against Jonny Lawson. Unfortunately, he ran into Ricardo Franco in the semi-finals, where he was knocked out, and has described looking up at the lights in the arena thinking “what happened?” For most fighters in their early 20s in Tierney’s situation, not fighting out of necessity, licking his wounds after a knockout loss, that would have been an opportune time to walk away.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
Instead, Tierney called the promoters and asked for a spot in the next tournament—which he won, knocking out James Connelly in the 2020 finals.
"A lot of people think I’m crazy – training and trying to get fit for fights, all in between working a full-time job and being a dad,” Tierney told the Birmoingham Mail earlier this year. "Everyone needs a dream to work towards don’t they, and I’ve got my dream. I said to myself by the age of 35, I want to be earning like £60,000 or £70,000 a year, and I want to have made a name for myself in a sport, so hopefully I’ll have some big paydays and a couple more titles.The balance of working as a quantity surveyor and being a bare-knuckle fighter, no matter how many worlds apart they are, I think that’s what motivates me really. Showing people that anything can be done.”
Tierney has said that his early bouts netted him between £500 and £1000 (roughly $600 to $1200 USD), but more recent bouts have been in the neighborhood of £15,000, which he says is “pocket money” that he uses for investments.
But the investment he makes in the sport is anything but passive. Tierney trains twice a day, waking up at 5:30 AM to squeeze in a session before he puts on his suit and heads to the office to oversee multi-million dollar developments.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
“I train every day, with one rest day on a Sunday,” said Tierney. “I get back home, shower and then get suited and booted and straight into the office. I’m in an office environment all day with black eyes and stuff from sparring. I’ve got a picture of me in the office, two days after my last fight, with a swollen jaw, two black eyes and a big cut under my eye.”
In terms of his quest for overall fame, one would have to say he’s on the right track. His Instagram page boasts over 35,000 followers, and his return to BKFC is a pathway to renown globally, not just within the die-hard UK bare knuckle audience.
Tierney has fought for BKFC in the past, debuting by scoring a masterful and brutal knockout victory over Jeremiah Riggs in 2022, and then outpointing company OG Joseph Ellmore later that year. Most recently, he was stopped by Jake Lindsey, despite dropping Lindsey in the bout himself.
In an interview with Dylan Bowker, Tierney admitted that he “wasn’t taking the sport seriously,” and says that he’s trained for this weekend’s bout like a true professional athlete for the first time, in addition to re-wiring himself mentally.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
And indeed, during the pre-fight hoopla, Tierney has at least outwardly hit new levels of confidence.
"It's not even a 2.0, it's a 3.0 Brum Town Bomber, who's hitting harder, who's moving quicker, who's fitter than ever, who's physically bigger, physically stronger and fuckin' better looking. I'm going to smash him up to pieces," Tierney told The Fuse UK. "In terms of knockouts, okay, he's got a 100% knockout ratio. But he's come up against two tune ups. I'm coming up against the top pedigree, and I'm dropping these people, and I ain't even throwing these shots, it's like an elastic band, bing bing, down he goes, see you in a bit."
“He says (he’s) never been stopped, never been dropped. The tenth of August, you’re not getting dropped, you’re getting fucking knocked out.”
With a victory, Tierney could become the inaugural BKFC UK welterweight champion, ensuring that his name will be mentioned in future chronicles of the sport’s history, achieving at least a piece of the level of fame he’s always craved. But to do it, he’ll have to complete another comeback, one that’s still out of desire rather than necessity.
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC
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