A fighter who's enjoying the fruits of his final chapter.
(Photo courtesy: BKFC)
The sport of professional boxing cannot function without fighters like Derrick Findley. In his 68-bout career thus far, Findley has lost 30 times, but has only been stopped in seven of those losses. Most of his losing efforts have come on short notice, always on the B-side, and always against a fighter that the presenting promoter wants to advance at Findley’s expense. Without journeymen like Findley willing to take risks and accept the lopsided circumstances presented to him, fighters like Gilberto Ramirez, Carlos Gongora, Andre Dirrell and Jose Uzcategui—all of whom he’s fought—would have never reached the levels they ultimately attained.
Findley has been one of combat sports’ ultimate DIY stories—in a very literal sense. For much of his career, the Gary, Indiana, USA native has been his own trainer, squeezing in sessions around his work in security and other industries. His partner, Marquita Blue-Findley, has been his manager and corner woman, and the couple dips into their joint bank account to pick up a cut man or cut woman at whichever venue they’re fighting in. When the losses start piling up too precipitously, Findley is also a promoter and matchmaker in Indiana, and has often thrown shows with himself in the main event, where he’s been able to enjoy victories in front of his home state crowds.
Like many of his pro boxing compatriots, Findley has moonlighted as a bare knuckle boxer as well, first competing sans gloves in 2021 in a losing effort against Kaleb Harris. The next year, he was stopped by Jake Lindsey in four rounds. All the while, he continued to compete in pro boxing, facing the likes of Pierre Dibombe who recently fought Bektemir Melekuziev on DAZN on the Devin Haney vs. Ryan Garcia undercard.
This weekend, he’ll make his bare knuckle return at the BKFC Prospect Series in Denver, Colorado, USA against MMA veteran Sergio Lopez. Stylistically, it’s a matchup more favorable to Findley than the last two times he’s taken off the gloves. Lopez is a straight-ahead banger without the refined boxing skills Findley is used to seeing and might not be as fresh as Harris or Lindsey.
The bare knuckle circuit continues to be a haven for fighters like Findley whose career arcs didn’t go the way they’d envisioned in gloved boxing. Despite a lengthy amateur career, Findley didn’t receive much attention from major promoters, and was “cast” as a journeyman almost immediately. As of 2014 when he was facing his most notable opponents for the most part, Findley had never made more than $15,000 for a fight, according to a Sports Illustrated profile by Chris Mannix. What he lacked in single night purses, he made up for with frequency of fights, and also plum assignments as a sparring partner for bigger name fighters.
Ultimately, the TV dates faded away, and as active as Findley has been, he’s been regulated to just a spoke in the ever-turning wheel that is the boxing industry. Bare knuckle, then, is a place for a rebirth, even for a 40-year-old fighter like Findley. As other transitioning boxers have found, their bona fides in the squared circle carry a cache, and they find themselves on high-level productions and pay-per-views, a long way from the off-TV undercards of grainy streams fighters of a certain level find themselves on, particularly in the autumns of their careers. As BYB star Tommy Turner told Bare Knuckle Nation earlier this year, “bare knuckle, as far as the promotion guys, they find the right guys, they're gonna treat them right, because there's only so many guys that wanna take off the gloves.”
For fighters like Findley, bare knuckle offers two main things: Purses and parity. For a 2020 story for BoxingScene, BKFC head David Feldman explained the opportunity for boxers like Findley. The story was built around Antonio Hernandez, a Kansas-based boxer who was 2-11-2 at the time of the story but was enjoying a nice little run in bare knuckle at that point.
“We pay better than most boxing and MMA promotions, unless you get to the high high level, we don't have the kind of spend to pay the big big names,” said Feldman. “For our prelim into our main card fighters, every one of those fighters are making more than they would at the same level in the other two sports.”
He added, “when you get a guy like Hernandez who comes in with a very upside-down record, and he comes in and I match him up evenly, he has a great fight and actually gets the nod in that fight.”
Though Findley never reached the heights of Alfredo Angulo who became an overnight bult bare knuckle favorite with his win at KnuckleMania IV, he must still look at Angulo’s purse of about $20,000 for 90 seconds of work and see value in it. And for BKFC as a promotion, the inclusion of recognizable names like Findley is nice little bait for the types of hardcore fans who might be on the fence about tuning in for a Prospects Series card.
Ultimately, these fights are at the very least a nice part of what could be the final chapter of Findley’s career, the ability to have a fancy walkout with an LED backdrop, treatment as an A-side fighter, all the frills that don’t exist in midwestern bingo halls and convention centers where a good chunk of pro boxing takes place.
More than anything, it’s a chance to enjoy the luxury of advance notice, and a fair shake.
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