We asked the fans for hot takes and they delivered!
Yesterday across the Bare Knuckle Nation social media channels, we asked fans to give us their “Hot Takes” for things that will happen in the bare knuckle year of 2025. While some fans may have only dipped their toe into the lukewarm side, some dove headfirst. Let's get into them right now!
@bareknucklegang says : “Bryce Henry and AJ Rodriguez will become champs”
Bryce Henry is one of the most talented fighters on the BKFC roster. His problem is activity. We haven't seen him in over a year and in that time he’s had two boxing fights. Now he did drop his last fight so he may want to shift back to bare knuckle. With an ability to put guys away at 155 and 165 he’s left himself lots of options to get to that title fight, but with him being out of the squared circle for so long it's a bit of stretch to say he’ll be champion in 2025. This one is a warm take.
He also said AJ Rodriguez will become a champion and this one is definitely a hot take. At 2-0 in his bare knuckle career, one of those coming in BKFC, Rodriguez is for sure talented and I’d love to see him start to climb the ladder at 135. But there are a lot of guys who are ahead of him. Justin Ibarolla is likely the next guy to challenge Alberto Blas, and even former champion Keith Richardson is making his case for a rematch. So, it will definitely be an uphill struggle for Rodriguez to win the title in the next 10 months. Maybe someday he will become champion but in 2025? Probably not. Hot take.
@mrstockperformer said: “HD will retire Palomino”
This one is definitely a hot take because the implication is he’s going to stomp Palomino. The only person we’ve seen even beat let alone dominate Palomino is PFP #1 Austin Trout. Don’t get me wrong, Davis is extremely capable, and I likely favour him in that fight with Luis, but for HD to really put it on Palomino to the point that he retires is a bold stance to take. The only cop out in this one is that Luis could be looking at this as a “last run to the title” and if he comes up short, decides to hang ‘em up. Still, Palomino has shown no signs of slowing down even when he was 43 facing Trout. Win or lose I think he sticks around. Unless mrstockperformer is correct and Davis really smashes him. Hot take.
@superduperbryan joined in saying: “Howard Davis and Justin Ibarolla will become champs in their division.”
A lot of HD supporters in our comment section on this one. Starting with HD again, he has a tall task ahead of him with his bout with Palomino coming up, but assuming he’s successful for the sake of this hot take, this one isn’t far off. A win over a guy like Palomino, being only the second ever to take down the modern day bare knuckle giant that he is, should more than guarantee HD a title shot. That brings him into a bout with Franco Tenaglia. A 100% winnable fight for Davis. This one wasn’t the craziest one we saw today, but defeating Palomino and Tenaglia in back-to-back fights is certainly bold. Very warm take.
From Instagram @nobonespodcast said: “Joe Lister becomes youngest ever champion.”
This one gave themselves some breathing room as to be the youngest ever BKFC champion, the 20 year old Lister has some time before he is the same age as Featherweight champion Kai Stewart was when he set the record. (22 years and 357 days old). I wasn’t able to find an exact birthdate for Lister but even if he turns 21 tomorrow, he still has all of his 21st and almost all of his 22nd year to meet Stewart’s mark. Now we did say for the year of 2025, but I’m willing to move the goalpost on this one.
Lister has just one bare knuckle fight, a 1st round TKO of John Ferguson, where he unleashed a barrage of body shots to eventually get the stoppage. Is Lister a legit title contender at this very second, probably not, but with likely two full years before he passes Stewart’s record, it's certainly possible this one comes true. Light Heavyweight is stacked with talent and Lister will need to put in lots of work to tally up wins over guys like Jared Warren, Jomi Escoboza and the others vying for a title shot at current champ Mike Richman. Even with the added runway this is still a very bold, very hot take.
Our fans on X also weighed in with @daretogobare saying: “If they have the $25 Million tournament there ain't no telling how it's going to shape up it’s going to be wild!”
This one is less of a take, and more of a statement, but with Feldman’s $25 Million tournament casting a big shadow over the year of 2025, everyone is waiting with baited breath for any sort of details that we can get. This one is as room temperature as it gets, because with the prize money on the line, this is going to be a crazy tournament. So @daretogobare you are correct! This is going to be wild, just maybe not the hottest take of the day.
@fanofcombat put a whole bunch of them on their Instagram story and said: ”Louie Lopez faces the winner of Kai Stewart and Tommy Strydom. Taylor Starling gets another shot at the strawweight title. Ben Rothwell wins the 25 million dollar tournament. Lorenzo Hunt moves up to heavyweight.”
There’s a lot to unpack here so I’ll try to be brief. Lopez, who’s lost three of his last four, getting a title shot off of a win over the now 3-4 Robert Armas makes this a blazing hot, melting my computer as I type this out, take. Not happening.
Taylor Starling gets a title shot at 115-lbs. Definitely hot considering she’s coming off of a loss. However Starling doesn’t have a single bad loss on her resume, only losing to the best. If she can score another win this summer, it’s not crazy to think she gets her rematch with Hart, especially given how huge their first fight was.
Ben Rothwell wins the $25 Million tournament. Hot. If it was an open weight tournament, sure, it makes sense the heavyweight champion would defeat all comers. While we don’t know much about the tournament, one thing we know is it won’t be at heavyweight, meaning Rothwell likely won’t qualify for the tournament in the first place.
Lorenzo Hunt will move up to heavyweight. Warm bordering on lukewarm. But the former two division champion is already booked to face Cruiserweight champion Chris Camozzi for the title, signalling Hunt will likely stay around his old stomping grounds of Light Heavy and Cruiserweight. However the last time we saw The Juggernaut, he was at heavyweight so a move back up is something that could be in the cards for 2025.
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We asked the fans for hot takes and they delivered! I hope no one is offended by me grading the takes but uh, it is sort of my job. We also appreciate our fans very much and we couldn’t do this without you. For those who dropped hot takes, get ready to drop some more in the future, and for those who didn’t push the envelope as much as the term Hot Take suggests, don’t be afraid to be bold next time!
You can send us your hot takes on Instagram @bareknucklenation or on X @bareknucklex
Until next time, stay bold!
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