After a action-packed August, there's some SERIOUS movement in our rankings!
Four of our August pound for pound fighters were in action this past month and based on their results, there are some big changes in our bare knuckle rankings. The names I'm talking about are LT Nelson, Cub Hawkins, Britain Hart, & Taylor Starling.
Let's start with Nelson since his performance was the most important and most impressive. He took on one of the greatest bare knucklers ever, in the form of Barrie Jones. He walked into the fight as the 3-1 underdog, and not only beat the legend but stopped him in round three. The saying goes you have to beat the man to be the man and LT did just that. This win alone would have him high in anyone's rankings but parlay that with his two-division titles in BYB Extreme and the conclusion is a top three fighter in the world.
Sticking with BYB but flipping the result, we go to Hawkins. The former light heavyweight champion put his strap on the line against Gregoris Cisneros, a former MMA opponent of his. Except this one would go the other way. Cisneros dropped Hawkins a total of SEVEN times and stopped him in the fifth, making a statement to the entire organization and becoming a world champion.
As for our two females, they fought each other in one of the biggest female bare knuckle fights ever. Hart, the reigning and defending BKFC Strawweight Champion put on a dominant display in her brightest moment and beat Starling by unanimous decision.
Now for the question you all came here for, what does all this mean for our rankings?
We decided that LT Nelson moves all the way from number 10 to number 3. Ahead of Kai Stewart, the BKFC Featherweight Champion because no one in bare knuckle has beaten Barrie Jones until now.
Cub Hawkins is removed from his eight spot to off the list and replaced with Cisneros who will slot in at 10.
Britain Hart will stay at number 2 still on the heels of Christine Ferea, who fights now pound for pound number 3 Jade Masson-Wong on Friday night. And Taylor Starling drops from 5 to 7. She just hasn't managed to find a way to win at the top level.
In other news, Po Denman has been inactive and still doesn't have a fight scheduled and therefore has been removed from our rankings. She hasn't fought in bare knuckle since November 2023.
Here are the updated lists!
September is also stacked with four title fights that could shift the rankings again!
Top Photo Courtesy: BYB Extreme
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