Alberta is quickly becoming one of the global hotbeds for bare knuckle fighting, with both major companies clamouring for a foothold in the province.
In the modern era of bare knuckle boxing, several distinct hotbeds have emerged as reliable resources of both talent and fan support. There is, of course, the United Kingdom broadly, where the lineage of bare knuckle boxing runs through, as well as its documentation through Pierce Egan. In the United States, there is of course Miami and the South Florida region where Dada 5000s backyard operation turned into what is now known as BYB Extreme. There’s also Wyoming, the first state to sanction bare knuckle in close to a century, providing the green light that BKFC needed. And after BKFC’s success in Sturgis, combined with Valor BK’s sellout offering in New Town several years ago, The Dakotas deserve a mention as well.
But the newest addition to that list appears to be the Canadian province of Alberta, which housed BKFC’s first Canadian offering in Edmonton, and is home to one of the most successful grassroots bare knuckle operations in the world, Havoc FC in Red Deer.
The trend of Alberta events will continue on August 31 at the River Cree Resort and Casino in Edmonton when BKFC returns for another Prospect Series show headlined by Drew Stuve and Sonny Smith.
Stuve is an Edmonton resident with a 1-0 record in both professional boxing and bare knuckle. He made his bare fisted debut earlier this year on the first Edmonton Prospects Series card with a first round stoppage win over Jason Kelly, and paylayed that immediately into a main event slot this time around. Smith is a UK-born Canadian resident who calls Vancouver, British Columbia home these days. The 36-year old was on the losing end on the first Edmonton card, getting blasted out by Jeremiah Riggs, but nonetheless proved himself worthy enough to David Feldman to find himself in a prominent role.
"Fans from across Canada have been demanding BKFC come to their country for years. We're thrilled to finally make that happen. Canada has some of the best fight fans in the world, so we couldn't be more excited," Feldman said in February of this year. "Edmonton is just the start. We're fired up to make a first impression to remember, and our plan is to eventually promote events regularly throughout Canada as more and more markets avail themselves for bare knuckle fighting."
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
The sport of bare knuckle, and BKFC in this instance, is just scraping the surface of the available talent in Canada. As fervent as the boxing fan base can be in Canada, particularly in Quebec, the country as a whole doesn’t actually stage that many professional boxing events annually relative to its talent pool, let alone the size of the country. As we’ve illustrated many times on this site, bare knuckle can be a welcome reprieve or even side hustle for boxing’s middle class, which is unfortunately where the vast majority of Canadian boxers reside. Fighters with potential upside, but precious few opportunities to fight domestically, let alone, locally, in order to build their records in a traditional fashion.
Fighters like the 12-1 heavyweight Stan Surmacz, an Edmonton native who hasn’t fought with gloves on since 2019, despite owning a record that many promoters in another circumstance would see potential dollar signs within. Earlier this year, Surmacz debuted in BKFC and dazzled with a third-round KO win over Rueben Roundstone.
Perhaps the best illustration of the depth of both talent and fan support comes from across the aisle, so to speak. Tyler Tremblett, a Canadian pro boxing heavyweight, made his bare knuckle debut in March, thrashing Donnie Tice on the Prospects Series event. Then, he fought in June of this year on a Havoc FC show in Red Deer against Jason Douglas, losing a decision to Douglas after breaking his hand early in the bout. Douglas is a former Canadian amateur standout, who at 44 years of age still has time to work with in bare knuckle where he's now 2-0.
That Havoc FC show on June 14 was sold out, to the point that the Red Deer Resort and Casino parking lot was filled to capacity and local businesses had to open up their lots to bare knuckle fight fans. For supporters of this discipline, it was an incredibly encouraging sign. Havoc had no affiliation with a “major” outfit, it simply promoted bare knuckle boxing featuring Canadian fighters, and that was enough to produce a profitable house and a raucous atmosphere. In addition, and unfortunately at Tremblett’s expense, it showed that even though he was a BKFC “vet,” there’s plenty of talent that has never taken the gloves off out there in the Great White North.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
This event in particular caught the eye of BYB Extreme, which typically teams with local promoters when putting their internationally broadcasted events together.
“Alberta is a legendary blue-collar fight province, and frankly, bare knuckle fighting having a foothold in the province is well overdue,” BYB CEO Greg Bloom told Bare Knuckle Nation. “With our recently expanded roster and as we continue to expand our global footprint, we are actively looking for new areas and venues, and Canada, specifically Alberta, is at the top of our list.”
Although we in the industry take it for granted, there are still many commissions worldwide, and within Canada, unwilling to sanction bare knuckle. Alberta offers promoters the ability to use a roaming commission, as Havoc FC does for its events, or a municipal commission, such as the Edmonton Combative Sports Commission. These setups are often more amenable to innovation, and to new things, like in this case letting fighters duke it out without gloves.
Alberta was the first to jump on board, and as a result, it’s no surprise that it’s the leading incubator of both talent and support, even as other areas are rumoured to be coming around as well.
“The fans in Edmonton were outstanding at our sold-out show in March and we’re very excited to return with another exciting BKFC Prospects Series event featuring the best bare-knuckle fighters in Canada on August 31,” Feldman said in July.The first part is most definitely true. The second part? That remains to be seen, as the talent continues to be mined, particularly in Oil Country.
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC
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