One fight of his life to another, almost four years exactly to the day.
On November 16th, 2019, Rico Franco had just beaten one of the best bare knucklers in the world in the form of Jimmy Sweeney, to become a BKB World Champion. Unfortunately for him, for reasons beyond his control, five years have passed, and that stands as the tip of his bare knuckle iceberg. But that could change on October 12th.
In October of 2020, he was planning to sign with Bellator MMA or have the rematch with Sweeney. Instead, he was handed a fight that would be much harder, Ulcerative Colitis Disease. Colitis is inflammation in your colon, the main part of your large intestine. Your colon is the last leg of your food's journey through your digestive system. Inflammation in your colon can affect how this journey ends, causing pain, diarrhea, and sometimes blood in your stool. Franco says he had been dealing with those kinds of symptoms for basically his entire fighting career but this was the moment he couldn’t ignore it anymore.
He had to undergo an eight-hour surgery that would leave him with a bag connected to his stomach still to this day. Three weeks into recovery he had to be rushed into another emergency surgery. He asked the doctor if he would be able to fight again, the doctor laughed and said, “Are you crazy?” For a fighter, or any athlete, that is rock bottom, when your career comes to an end not on your terms. But the doctor clearly didn’t know who Rico Franco was.
Not only did he return to the combat sports scene in 2021, less than a year after his first surgery, and the brutal sport of bare knuckle at that, his first fight back was the Sweeney rematch.
Franco put up a valiant effort that night, but it wasn’t going to be enough to beat someone like Sweeney. Franco went out on his shield, despite being knocked down repeatedly, the fight wasn’t over until the doctor said it was due to the cuts Franco had suffered.
That was a really tough night for him as he just had another doctor tell him he wasn’t good enough to continue. After Franco eventually made his way out of the O2 Arena that night, waiting for him outside the entrance were thousands of people who gravitated towards his story of resilience. For someone who might’ve been questioning himself on whether or not he should continue this bare knuckle thing, that moment right there could be the reason why he did.
Less than three months later he was back in a ring, this time in a boxing fight which he won by third-round knockout. Five months after that, he came back to bare knuckle, this time under the BYB banner, and took on LT Nelson who was making his debut.
Nelson got the better of Franco as he stopped him in the second and then LT went on to become one of the best bare knuckle fighters on the planet just two years later. And no, Rico wasn’t done yet.
He moved over to BKFC in March 2023 and in under four minutes, he would secure his first bare knuckle win since 2019 by second-round stoppage. One month later he got another. Three months after that, it was time for Franco to give himself another massive test. This time in the form of the very seasoned bare knuckler and former world title challenger Kaleb Harris.
Photo courtesy: BKFC
It was sink or swim here. Harris was a guy who couldn’t quite get over the hump in BKFC. If Franco couldn’t beat him, maybe it was time to move on from bare knuckle.
Franco put on a performance of a lifetime as he knocked Harris down nine times, yes, nine times en route to a fifth-round stoppage win. That made it clear to him, the fans, and most importantly the President of BKFC, David Feldman, that Franco was ready for another world title shot.
On October 12th, he gets it and of course, it doesn’t get any harder than this. He is taking on our pound-for-pound number one, former boxing world champion, and current BKFC Welterweight King, Austin Trout. The fight also takes place in the co-main of a groundbreaking event for BKFC as they are making their debut in Spain and debut on DAZN. The expectation is this event will be the highest viewership in BKFC history and likely the sport’s history.
Trout may have an elite boxing background but he still only has two bare knuckle fights under his belt and in this sport especially, experience matters. One shot can change the entire night. This is Franco’s chance to remind everyone that he is one of the best in the world. It’s a moment that could make up for everything he has gone through.
Four years later, almost to the day, after a surgery that he thought would end his fighting career, Rico Franco has the opportunity to create a new tip to his iceberg, in the second biggest fight of his life.
Top photo courtesy: BKFC
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