Two Fight of The Year contenders in two different countries in two weeks.
If you wanted to get someone into bare knuckle boxing and had to pick a fight to show them in order to convince them to start following the sport, BYB has given you two damn good options to choose from over the last few weeks.
On August 10, Gregoris Cisneros and Cub Hawkins traded knockdowns like they were goals in a high scoring hockey game, with Cisneros ultimately exacting revenge on Hawkins after losing to him in MMA. Cisneros displayed fight-ending power from bell to bell, and Hawkins showed recuperative abilities that were frankly out of this world. Even the final right hand from Cisneros that ended the fight in the fifth round came while his mouthpiece was still mid-flight after being jarred loose by Hawkins who dared to go down swinging.
The fight demonstrated the unique nature of drama that bare knuckle can produce. For one, there was the visual brutality, the blood and hideous swelling happening on both fighters’ faces from the early stages in the fight and extending throughout. But beyond that, the fight showed the way that knockdowns almost have to be baked into one’s gameplan. Because of the frequency with which one can be hurt, and cut, in bare knuckle, one has to learn how to take a knockdown—sometimes strategically—and regroup.
Unlike in gloved boxing, most bare knuckle bouts end in a stoppage. As a result, a knockdown’s effect on the scorecards isn’t always a fighter’s concern after they’ve been knocked down. Hawkins was down two 10-8 rounds in a six-round fight before suffering a third knockdown, which under “normal” circumstances would compel the afflicted fighter to enter desperation mode, and potentially the assailant to get into cruise control. But each time, Hawkins got up and calmly reset as he looked for a fight-ending shot, never wavering from what his initial plan was. And to a degree, it worked. He floored Cisneros twice in the fight, hurt him badly at the end of the first round, and damn near landed a knockout shot in the fifth before getting knocked out himself. Generally speaking, when a fighter is knocked down more times than one can count on their hand, there is not the feeling amongst viewers that they can win the fight. That wasn’t the case with Hawkins, who in a losing effort, made the fight truly special.
Photo Courtesy: BYB
If there was one thing the fight lacked, it was perhaps the atmosphere commensurate with the ludicrous violence and drama unfolding in the ring. While the crowd at the Charles F. Dodge City Center was certainly thrilled by what they saw, there wasn’t the unhinged frenzy in the audience that the fight deserved. This isn’t a circumstance unique to this fight either. Boxing classics like Toney-Jirov or even Corrales-Castillo were held in front of modest crowds that didn’t produce deafening roars, but it certainly didn’t tarnish the at-home viewing experience.
But there’s no arguing that a rabid crowd doesn’t enhance the drama of athletic action in any circumstance. If you wanted to see what a bare knuckle classic looked and sounded like with a jam-packed crowd going absolutely bonkers, you only had to wait one more week to see everything come together beautifully.
This past weekend, LT Nelson travelled across the pond to battle pound-for-pound and all-time bare knuckle great Barrie Jones in his homeland of Wales. All 3500 seats at the Vale Arena were sold out, packed what felt like uncomfortably close to the Mighty Trigon, harkening back to the old days of the crowds themselves forming a human ring around the pugilists battling for the Police Gazette title.
As we’ve illustrated in the past on this site, while bare knuckle is a new curiosity in markets in the United States, it’s woven into the culture in the United Kingdom. Jones in particular is a legitimate local star, and the fans are familiar with the fighters on the undercard, the world title picture, the gossip of the industry.
Wales Online reported Bethany Gavaghan penned an article over the weekend titled “I went to a bare-knuckle boxing match and it was like entering a different world.” Gavaghan described the crowd as such: “Walking through the doors, with the familiar sound of Mr. Brightside blasting around the building, it was strange to see such a massive variety of people there. From women in their twenties to families bringing young children (I even saw a few babies being cradled in the arena by members of the crowd), it definitely wasn't the male-dominated audience I had wrongly assumed it would be, which was the first surprise.”
Photo Courtesy: BYB
As you might expect, the crowd went wild for “The Welsh Wrecking Machine,” as he tried to fend off “Smash” Nelson and hold onto his Police Gazette World Middleweight Title. Jones spent most of the first round touching up Nelson with straight shots down the middle, busting up Nelson’s eye to a worrying degree. Nelson clearly took this as a sign to make drastic changes, and by the second round had stopped attempting to box at long range with Jones altogether, instead using all-out pressure and volume to bully Jones into corners.
This event also marked the first time the Trigon appeared in what was formerly known as BKB prior to the company merger. Nelson’s experience in the triangular confines aided him tremendously, as he brutalized The GOAT until he remained on a knee for the count of ten in the third round.
Following the bout, Jones announced his retirement from fighting at the age of 39.
“He’s a tough guy. I got dragged into his kind of fight. I’ve given my best at that stage of my career and my life,” Jones told Bare Knuckle News. “I trained hard, as hard as I possibly could. All credit to him. He kind of changed his tactics up a little bit and it then took a lot out of me. This is his game, not mine. Last year I had a year off with my hand. I haven’t got it in the tank anymore, I’m too old now. It was nice to see my kids here, it was horrible to see them upset. They sacrificed a lot for me. It’s time to just be normal. I’m happy with what I’ve done.”
Top Photo Courtesy of BYB.
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