BKFC's underdog champion gets it done once again at BKFC 62.
If you were one of the people who didn’t quite buy into the Kai Stewart hype, you can give yourself a little grace. Even the oddsmakers favored Bryan Duran in their headline bout for the BKFC featherweight championship last weekend, a fact that scrolled across the screen as Stewart entered the ring.
It’s hard to believe in something when there is no precedent for what it is you’re being asked to buy into. In Stewart’s case, he’s a one of one. Even within the sport of bare knuckle, a young but rapidly growing pursuit where unique things are happening all the time, Stewart still manages to stand out as an extreme outlier. A three-time state champion wrestler in Montana, Stewart went on to wrestle at Minot and later the University of Providence, where he was still active when he became a professional fighter.
Stewart having no distinguished striking background whatsoever was understandably reason to doubt how successful he would be in bare knuckle boxing. In BKFC specifically where clinching and “dirty boxing” are allowed, MMA fighters have had tremendous success, but of course, an aspect of MMA is punching and kicking. Pure boxers have had success of course too, with former pro boxing champ Austin Trout holding the company’s welterweight title. But pure amateur wrestlers? Bare knuckle boxing, with no takedowns allowed, would seem like the absolute wrong sport for them.
But Stewart has proven everyone wrong, about him, and about the transferability of an amateur wrestling base to the sport of bare knuckle. And despite his over-the-top braggadocio, Stewart is self-aware enough to acknowledge that it surprised him a little bit too.
"I did it, honestly, as like a one-off little joke, if I'm being honest. I've never been in a street fight in my entire life, never felt a bare knuckle, never punched anyone with a bare knuckle. So, me being in bare knuckle as a two-time world champion is fucking crazy,” Stewart told Bare Knuckle Nation’s Adam Hunt in an interview last month. "I mean, the ruleset. As soon as I got him in a stand-up situation, I realized that anyone who trained regular boxing was fucked against me."
(Photo Courtesy: BKFC)
In particular, Stewart pointed out that his experience in, and affinity for Greco Roman wrestling, is a key reason for his success. Greco forbids holds below the waist, meaning competitors need to master hand and body control, rather than trips. Many of those tactics fall within the BKFC ruleset, something that Stewart found out when he stepped in the ring for the first time, which he admits he did primarily to make enough money to purchase a new puppy. When he left the ring on October 9, 2021 after TKOing Darrick Gates in the first round, his dreams immediately went beyond cuddling with his new best friend. He told his coach, in the ring, that he could be world champion.
"Any high level Greco wrestler could probably come to bare knuckle, do six months of training, and probably become a world champion,” said Stewart.
As an individual, Stewart figures to be a key cog in BKFC’s growth as a company. His Conor McGregor-esque swagger and penchant for trash talk combined with his boyish charm and good looks make him the perfect representative for the requisite media rounds. Stewart interviews inevitably are a collection of golden sound bites, fit for the age of TikTok and Instagram reels. Inside the ring, while his boxing admittedly isn’t the tidiest, his fights are contested as a frenetic, sometimes chaotic pace as he uses physicality and endurance to grind his opponents down.
(Photo Courtesy: BKFC)
It's something we saw once again in the Duran fight. After absorbing some colossal shots from Duran in the opening round—once again answering questions, in this case about his ability to withstand shots—Stewart had Duran visibly tired by the middle of the second round. Two knockdowns and three more rounds later, and Stewart won a wide unanimous decision over Duran in his hometown of Miami. By the time he took the mic and launched into his schtick in the post-fight interview, some of the heavily pro-Duran crowd had warmed to him.
"He hit me hard as f**k," said Stewart at the post-fight press conference. "Another five round fight, another Fight of the Night, thank you for helping me earn that bonus brother."
As much as Stewart might be the blueprint for the crossover star that BKFC is craving, he also may be prototype for the next wave of bare knuckle fighter. Until Stewart’s meteoric rise, it’s likely that collegiate wrestlers or Greco grapplers wouldn’t have considered bare knuckle as their next move. It’s a paradigm shift that mirrors something happening in another rapidly growing sport—pickleball.
Of course, pickleball and bare knuckle fighting couldn’t be any different as sports, but they share the attribute of being a landing spot for athletes from similar disciplines, and due to their relative infancy, offering the potential of a quick rise to the top and the paydays that come in that territory. After the success of recent collegiate tennis players like Anna Bright, and former tennis pros like Jack Sock, pickleball has become a tempting landing spot for NCAA players not headed to the pros, or pro tennis players on their way out.
(Photo Courtesy: BKFC)
This shift could be seen even in the fight that directly preceded Stewart’s win over Duran on the weekend. Alberto Blas, a former member of Cuba’s national freestyle wrestling team, demolished Keith Richardson so thoroughly that Richardson was attempting to punch the referee in a frightening concussed stupor. Blas had little success in a brief MMA stint, but looks like an absolute monster in BKFC, where he now holds the bantamweight title.
Stewart may be the fulcrum on which the company turns, but his goals are, at heart, still very close to home. As well as he taps into the larger-than-life, pro wrestling style braggart, he can also take the mask off to reveal the true genesis of his desire.
"Montana, we're slept on as a state. There's not a lot up there in terms of people who make it out. But there's a lot of heart, and there's a lot of people really grinding to make a living. They're making an honest living up there. Right now I'm making an honest living. I represent everything that Montana represents, the Montana values,” said Stewart at the post-fight press conference. "I can't wait to represent for the rest of my fucking life."
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC
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