After 20 years of practicing martial arts, Ryan Reber will finally fight for a world title at BKFC 66.
Through very little fault of his own, Ryan Reber has become one of the most polarizing figures in the BKFC community. As tends to happen when a fighter is in the midst of a lengthy winning streak, debate has persisted about whether he deserved to win all of those bouts on the scorecards, and in Reber’s case, there was even a post-fight brawl. His DQ win over Jack Grady and his sudden death victory over Travis Thompson are two of the most revisited and debated events in company history. Even BKFC’s own website includes the following line in his official biography: “Critics will say Ryan Reber has gotten lucky and supporters will say he could fight for the belt tomorrow and win convincingly.”
In May of this year, Reber made a calculated business decision. He was coming off a fourth-round TKO victory over Derek Perez on the Austin Trout-Luis Palomino undercard, and an opening popped up on the May 11 card at the Mohegan Sun Casino in Connecticut, a landmark event for the company. As Reber revealed to Knockout Radio, his hands were still not fully healed from the bout with Perez. There’s a reason why fighters who aren’t scoring first round knockouts don’t fight on a monthly basis as they might be able to in gloved boxing—cuts are certainly one issue; hand health is another. Nonetheless, Reber took the fight against Anthony Foye and went another five violent rounds to pick up his sixth career victory.
"I should have finished that fight, I should have made it more entertaining, but that would have meant I would have had to take more time off. Now this one, I'm fully healed up, I'm ready to go and I'm ready to lay it all on the line,” said Reber.
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
Even after the gutsy gamble, Reber wasn’t entirely sure if and when he’d be getting his shot at the BKFC bantamweight title. A couple months went by, his hands healing all the while, and Reber told SportsKeeda’s Dylan Bowker earlier this week that he was playing a game of Fortnite with training partner and close friend David “Redneck” Mundell and watching the BKFC event on his phone when he saw the poster for BKFC 66 pop up.
There it was. Him posed next to Alberto Blas. His shot had finally arrived.
“I almost shit myself,” joked Reber.
In Blas, Reber steps into the squared circle against a fighter who’s enjoyed one of the most meteoric rises in the sport’s history. The ex-Cuban wrestler has scored five consecutive first round stoppages, most recently over Keith Richardson to capture the title. The Richardson knockout was uniquely frightening, going viral for days after it happened as Richardson was so dazed and confused after getting dropped by Blas that he attempted to fight the referee thinking it was Blas.
But as much as Blas joked about the disbelief he had upon seeing the fight announcement, he is anything but lacking in the belief that he belongs in this fight. And he’s certainly not making any kind of a mess in his pants at the thought of fighting Blas, despite his lofty knockout record.
"I don't let it get into my mind that he's been knocking everybody out in the first round, because everybody he fought isn't me. It's gonna be different in there." Reber told Knockout Radio. "He's been knocking everybody out, but who's he actually knocking out? Like Lorenzo knocked out The Marine, that kind of knockout. And not to put anything past him, he's the real deal, but that's why I want him. Because then it proves to me who's the real Real Deal. A lot of unanswered questions will be answered."
Photo Courtesy: BKFC
Blas vs. Reber represents a recurring archetype of matchup on BKFC events, pitting a bare knuckle lifer, a true BKFC grinder, against a new shiny star converting from another discipline. We’ve seen many variations of this, from ex-boxers to ex-UFC stars to influencers stepping in to bare knuckle action. Blas would appear to be much different. Despite his amateur wrestling background, he’s long since left the mat, and has fought less than one round of gloved boxing. At this point, Blas is a through-and-through bare knuckle fighter, but it remains true that he hasn’t yet found an opponent who was able to test him in earnest, which is why Reber has stressed in the media for the past few weeks that he will be “dragging Blas into deep waters.”
As for how he’ll do that, Reber insists that he has no set strategy, by design.
"If you get too caught up in here man, you're already cooked," said Reber, motioning to his head in the Knockout Radio studios. "Chris and Sean Whelock always ask me that. My game plan is to have no game plan."
Top Photo Courtesy of BKFC.
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