How one Cuban prospect has turned the whole division on its head.
The BKFC Heavyweight belt has been a hot potato ever since its inception, with six different championship reigns in its six years of existence. One would think with the belt being as active as it’s been, it would result in the heavyweights being the must-see attraction. But to be honest that hasn’t really been the case.
When the current champion, Mick Terrill, won the vacant title over AJ Adams at BKFC 56, he did so at the fourth-to-last fight of the night–or the preantepenultimate if you were wondering. A heavyweight title fight, with three fights after it?! After Terrill won the belt, his first defence was against two-division champion Lorenzo Hunt, who was trying his hand at heavyweight. While the card placement did improve with the bout serving as the co-main event of KnuckleMania IV, it still wasn’t the headliner.
Now, Terrill is scheduled to face off against Ben Rothwell, once again as the co-main event of a KnuckleMania. Your heavyweight championship of the world stuck as a filler fight for two lightweights to fight with no belt on the line in the main event. That was a very long-winded way of saying that the division needs a hero.
But a budding hero they have, because there are five feet, eleven inches and 265 pounds of sheer explosive energy here to save the day. Leonardo Perdomo made his debut in June of 2023 against Joseph White, but El Zombo needed less than one round to dispatch his opponent.
A quick turnaround just two months later, he collected a win yet again in the first round against Paul Shough. But it wasn’t just the pace at which he was doing it; it was how– the sounds of Perdomo grunting with force with each emphatic punch landed, the sound of the bully clubs he calls fists hitting raw flesh. Perdomo was turning heads.
It was only more of the same in 2024. In January, he knocked out Bobby Brents with a shot that stunned that legitimately knocked him out so silly he was three feet off the ground but completely parallel with the floor at one point. At BKFC 62, he stole the show when he splattered Leo Bercier around the squared circle like a kid playing with his pillow pretending to be John Cena.
Then he knocked out Steve Banks so badly he was sitting against the ropes with his eyes closed, yet still awake, reaching around for something to grab onto. Seriously, like something out of a movie. Oh, and I forgot to mention: all five of his wins have come in the first round. Yes, seriously.
Perdomo is routinely one-upping the main event with the highlight of the night every time he steps into the ring. To the point that if I didn’t have to cover the events for a living, I wouldn’t even remember what the main events of those cards were.
Perdomo is the next generation of BKFC heavyweights, and I have no doubt that when Terrill and Rothwell get their business sorted out, Perdomo will be next in line. And I also have no doubt that when he finally does fight for a world title it will be a main event.
Arriving at the perfect time, with his ridiculous power, unblemished record, and a highlight reel that could rival anyone in the history of bare knuckle, Leonardo Perdomo is the saviour of the heavyweight division.
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC.