The Cuban Takeover.
If you wanted to, you could watch Gustavo Trujillo’s entire five-fight bare knuckle boxing career in less than fifteen minutes, probably including ring walks, too. To this point, Trujillo’s rise has been violent and swift inside the ring, but somewhat turbulent outside of it.
Trujillo’s career sans gloves began back in 2019 with BKFC, when he flattened Robert Morrow in the first round. Following that however, he fought just once per year for the next three years, in part due to the pandemic and the sporadic scheduling it caused. In 2024 however, he made his debut in BYB, a decision that may alter the direction of his career forever.
The 31-year old Cuban blasted Levi Da Costa in the first round in his debut in the Mighty Trigon on the Hawkins-Jett undercard, immediately announcing himself as a threat to the BYB heavyweight throne.
"Thankfully it's happened this way," Trujillo told BYB's Claudia Trejos recently. "But I also know in the near future, the opposition is coming up a level and the fights will become more challenging."
The opposition will most certainly increase this weekend, as Trujillo faces Ike Villanueva for the BYB heavyweight title at the Bourbon Street Brawl in New Orleans, LA. It represents perhaps the biggest heavyweight fight in the company’s history, but also a potential changing of the guard, as the 40-year old Villanueva tried to hold off a much younger, undefeated challenger.
“Anytime you’re given the opportunity to fight for a world title, you’re given the chance to prove that you're the best in your division,” said Trujillo at a recent press event. “This will be the first title of many to come, but really, it’s just another step to me claiming the most important title of all: When it’s all said and done, I will be pound-for-pound the greatest bare-knuckle fighter of my time.”
It's interesting hearing Trujillo position himself as a bare knuckle fighter first and foremost, because he’s not a fighter void of success in other avenues. Prior to coming to the United States, Trujillo was a member of Cuba’s national wrestling team. After a dalliance in mixed martial arts, where he made one appearance in Bellator, he decided to focus on boxing and bare knuckle, dipping into his background in amateur boxing as well. As a gloved boxer, he’s 6-0 with five knockouts, even appearing on a Guillermo Rigondeaux undercard.
But the formative fight for Trujillo had nothing to do with any former world champion whatsoever. Rather, it was his most recent pro boxing match against cult favorite Terrell Jamal Woods. For the non-hardcore pro boxing fans who aren’t constantly refreshing Tim Boxeo’s feed on X, a bout against Woods, who was 29-58-10 at the time he fought Trujillo, would not seem like a notable event. However, Woods is perhaps the most dangerous and durable heavyweight journeyman on the planet, and many times in his career has been the executioner for would-be prospects coming up through the club scene in the United States.
In March of 2024, Woods took Trujillo the distance, the first time that’s ever happened to Trujillo. The only time it’s ever happened in any boxing context since then is in the Team Combat League, with the major caveat that fighters only fight one round at a time. Trujillo won his round against Joey Dawejko in this instance, but did not knock him out. Against Woods however, he had to genuinely work for four full rounds in the relatively tiny ring in the Ronald Reagan Equestrian Center in Miami that night.
"That was the fight I learned the most from, because he got to hit me quite a lot. Obviously, I won, so I connected on more punches, but he survived, and he made me sweat. I had to work twice as hard, and my mental state developed because I learned a lot. Not everyone is going to hit the ground. A lot of times we think it'll be over in the first round and we give it our all, but there's still three or four more rounds, so that showed me a lot."
Speaking of confined spaces, Trujillo has had to learn ow to operate in the unique Trigon, which is the smallest fighting surface anywhere in combat sports. In BKFC, Trujillo had plenty of room to move around and walk his opponents into counters—even though he didn’t necessarily need a lot of time or space to do so. In the Trigon, as we saw him employ in a gloved bout against Woods, Trujillo has had to think offensively all the time.
"It's a bit more challenging. Remember, I was in the other league, the competititor (BKFC), and that was more rectangular, it was like a circle, so you have more of an opportunity to move around when you're being attacked, when your opponent comes forward, you can displace yourself a bit. Here, when you take a few steps back, you're already against the ropes," said Trujilo. "Take two steps (back) and you're screwed. You have no choice but to fight. If you're coming over here, you have to understand that."
There’s a notable pattern emerging in the bare knuckle scene as of late, with the rise of fighters like Alberto Blas and Kai Stewart across the aisle in BKFC. Fighters with high level wrestling background, but particularly in the case of Blas, high-level Cuban athletes dominating the highest levels of the bare knuckle scene. Just as we saw in the development of MMA as a sport, we’re starting to figure out which styles and disciplinary backgrounds are the most effective in bare knuckle. Originally, it was thought that decent pro boxers could just bounce over to bare knuckle and dominate, and while some have indeed done that, others have been wiped out by wrestlers with big gas tanks.
Trujillo represents a hybrid of what’s worked best in bare knuckle, and also carries the kind of knockout power that has made any stylistic approach irrelevant against him anyway.
"I believe this is my opportunity and my moment. And I say this with all respect, Villanueva is a stellar fighter, a superstar, but this is my moment. It's my turn. The Cuban Assassin needs to take that spot,” said Trujillo. "If he falls in the first round, so be it. If he doesn't fall in the first round and he goes into deep waters, it will be worse for him.”
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