A fighter who has the desire, drive, & chance to bring bare knuckle to Hawaii.
(Photo courtesy: BYB Extreme)
On June 14th, 2024, headlining BYB 27 in Jacksonville, Florida, USA, the well seasoned combat sports fighter Jon “Untameable” Barnard (3-0, 3 KO’s) will take on Harold “Lightning” McQueen (3-1, 3 KO’s) with a shot at a world title on the line. A win could give Barnard the opportunity of bringing bare knuckle to his home state for the very first time.
Originally born in Makaha, Hawaii, Barnard started training in combat sports in the early 2000’s just to lose weight. The first discipline that caught his attention was kickboxing and despite him not being overly interested in competing, his coach had other ideas. This 12-0 amateur kickboxer was looking for an opponent and despite Barnard having never fought in an organized fight before, his coach thought he was ready. Barnard took the bout without knowing the opponent’s record at first and then was informed by his peers that he probably shouldn’t be doing this. But his coach was adamant he was ready for it and despite the distaste from Barnard’s circles - his brother said he would beat up Jon’s coach if he got hurt - Barnard took the fight. Fortunately for Jon and the coach, it was the right decision as Barnard put the first W on his record and handed the other guy his first L.
Side note, not sure how well Jon’s brother could fight, but it feels safe to assume it wouldn’t have been good for him to fight a trained combat sports coach.
The win proved to Jon that he could do this for real and that started his very lengthy journey in combat sports.
In 2014, he dealt with some injuries and took some time away from the sport. During this time he wanted to figure out what his life would look like after or possibly without combat sports being a part of it. He went to post-secondary school, got a degree, had a daughter, was a fight photographer, and started coaching. It was during his time as a coach where he found the itch to return to competition. His gym in Hawaii was also home to the start of former UFC Featherweight World Champion Max Holloway’s MMA career. One day, a girl by the name Andraya Carter walked into his gym and wanted to start training. In case you are unfamiliar with who that is, she is a former college basketball player who now serves as an analyst on ESPN. Barnard spent roughly three months training her before she wanted to have a fight. And once she did and Barnard got to be in her corner for it, he got the itch again.
On May 12th, 2023, he would make his return after nine years out of the ring and would do so in his bare knuckle debut. One would expect some rust would need to be shaken off but not Barnard as he scored a first round stoppage. He was back just over a month later, this time making his BYB Extreme debut, and again got the job done inside the distance. Both of those fights were at his walk around weight of 155-lbs. And since he felt like he was back and ready for bigger challenges he searched for a fight at his more suitable weight of 135-140. In October of 2023, he got the fight at the weight he was looking for and ran through his opposition in one round. That proved to BYB that he is ready to be thrown into the deep end.
That’s where Harold McQueen comes in. The current BYB Featherweight World Champion is moving up to 135 in hopes of chasing two-division champ honours. But standing in his way is Barnard. Jon suggests that McQueen could be his toughest test to date but also states he has never faced a striker like Barnard.
Barnard’s goals aren’t just to be as successful as possible in bare knuckle. Or even just in life. He wants to leave an impact on people and bring bare knuckle back to Hawaii. The best way to do that is to keep on winning, especially in big fights. That starts on June 14th by beating Harold McQueen.
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