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Bare knuckle boxing makes Tennessee debut in Nashville
Blood soaked the canvas of the three-sided ring within The Pinnacle in Nashville following nine high-action bare knuckle boxing fights on June 21, the first to ever be sanctioned in Tennessee. A spirited crowd filled the room to witness history, as BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing became the first to put on a professional bare knuckle fight card since the Tennessee Athletic Commission (TAC) approved unified rules for the sport in March. Advertisement 'We are waiting patiently as states become more interested in bringing bare knuckle, so Tennessee was always a state (and) Nashville in particular was a place that we had our eye on, because we just felt that they had fight fans here and they just really were a little bit starved for a good event,' BKB CEO Greg Bloom said. 'So we're happy to bring it to town.' MORE: Derrick Lewis planning Broadway celebration ahead of UFC fight in Nashville As bare knuckle boxing has grown in popularity in recent years, so has new opportunity for fighters looking to make a name in an ever-growing combat sports landscape. Caleb Austin and Devin Wallace, each fighting out of Wildside Combat Sports in Clarksville, made their bare knuckle debuts on the card, while former UFC fighter Ike Villanueva has carved a new path outside of mixed martial arts with BKB. Advertisement 'It was an honor to come here and put on a great show in the first card here," Villanueva said after a first-round TKO win. "I'm (on a) high right now because it is a lot of hard work I put in to get this ... "Being a former UFC star coming here and making a name, this is my house … with BKB we started in gymnasiums, now we're here in The Pinnacle. Beautiful arena, I love it here and this is the place for it to be.' How bare knuckle boxing came to Tennessee With professional bare knuckle boxing increasing in profile, so have nationwide discussions regarding the sanctioning of the sport. Those discussions began in Tennessee three years ago; at the time, the TAC was not ready to move forward with official sanctioning. Advertisement And while bare knuckle boxing has drawn its fair share of criticism in regard to fighter safety, Bloom says the bloody nature of the sport is misleading when compared to the actual effects it has on the brain. "There are two major companies that do bare knuckle fights, and both of them have done a study from fight one until these fights tonight of every single fight that's happened," Bloom said. "And the medical data has shown out that bare knuckle fighting is five times less traumatically injurious than MMA and four times less than boxing. Those are the facts." Sanctioning discussions reemerged in July 2024 when the Association of Boxing Commissions (ABC), of which the TAC is a member, approved a unified set of rules for bare knuckle boxing. Tennessee's athletic commission reviewed and ultimately implemented the unified rules in its decision to sanction the sport. Following a rulemaking hearing the rules went into effect on March 5. Lowrawnt T 'Smash' Nelson gestures to the crowd after winning during the BKB super middleweight championship fight against Sam Liera at The Pinnacle in Nashville, Tenn., Saturday, June 21, 2025. MORE: Former heavyweight champ Oliver McCall fights to draw at Country Box event in Nashville Advertisement BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing was quick to capitalize upon the sport's official sanctioning in Tennessee, looking to provide Nashville fight fans with their first taste of action in its patented trigon ring, with seven current or former BKB champions on the card. 'I think there's a very rich fight fan base here in Nashville, so we're happy to expose them to something new and again, hopefully they find it more exciting than what's coming to town," Bloom said. "And next time we come, we'll do it bigger and better.' Bloom isn't the only one who's eyeing a future BKB event in Nashville. Two-division BKB champion Lorawnt-T Nelson avenged his lone career loss in the main event with a first-round stoppage of Sam Liera, and he hopes it won't be his last title defense in Tennessee. 'It's amazing man, especially out here in Nashville, Tennessee, baby," Nelson said. "Music City, it's fun. I've been walking around, enjoying the food, enjoying the people and this is a great spot. Hopefully we can come back here again.' Advertisement Harrison Campbell covers boxing for The Tennessean and high school sports for The Daily Herald. Email him at hcampbell@ and follow him on Twitter @hccamp. This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee hosts professional bare knuckle boxing for first time
Telegraph
21-04-2025
- Sport
- Telegraph
Bare-knuckle boxing has clawed its way from dark underbelly to the mainstream
It was raucous, rowdy, and historic belts were on the line. Nine of 11 bouts, which included two world-title contests, ended in knockouts. But there were no gloves. Bare Knuckle Boxing (known as BKB) has gone from being the dark underbelly of the fighting scene to a legitimate sport with the sell-out event at Vale Sports Centre in Cardiff on Saturday night being the organisation's 40th event. There was a time when the tags of 'gory' and 'barbaric' were used for this ancient form of hand-to-hand combat, once associated more with smoky backrooms within insalubrious venues. Not any more, however, insists BKB, who hold the moniker of being the oldest bare-knuckle boxing league, harking back to the Victorian-era world champion John L Sullivan. Nonetheless, it is still blood and guts and fury with a 90 per cent stoppage ratio in the smallest combat arena in the world – a triangular 'Trigon' – and unrelenting action. The four-hour show is almost half the length of traditional boxing or mixed-martial-arts cards. Saturday's show in Cardiff was over by 9.30pm. Indeed, a shorter night's entertainment is something promoter Eddie Hearn has advocated recently for regular boxing events. There is no time to breathe, as the fights come thick, fast and often very bloody, with cuts common. Brutal as the fights are, there is a very nuanced skill set to bare-knuckle boxing, and the comportment between fighters before and after bouts – which range between 15 and 18 minutes – could only be described as gentlemanly. Women compete in the league, too. The boxers on Saturday night's card included an eclectic mix of characters: a former biker-gang member, who said he had escaped 'jail and death' through fighting; Ash Williams, a Commonwealth Games medallist for Wales, still serving with the Welsh Regiment; gym owners, businessmen, and fighters from other martial-arts disciplines. POV: You're ringside the moment the champion Liam 'Rocky' Rees completes his maiden title defence. 👀 #BKB40 #BKB #BareKnuckle — BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing (@bkbbareknuckle) April 20, 2025 Bridgerweight Dorian Darch, who was victorious over Tony Barratt inside a minute, formerly fought Anthony Joshua, Daniel Dubois and Hughie Fury as a heavyweight in gloved boxing. 'I was made for this; I wish it had been around years ago in this form,' Darch told Telegraph Sport. 'The narrative arc of many of the fighters' lives, the speed and pacing of the events, and the thrilling fights make the public want to follow the fighters,' Mike Vasquez, a wealthy American business entrepreneur who set up the NASCAR franchise in Mexico and leads the BKB company, added. Last year, after several years organising bare-knuckle events in the US, Vasquez bought out his British counterpart. The two organisations had been working side by side, sharing talent and ideas, for several years. On the UK side, Joe Smith, a successful self-made businessman, and his head of operations Jim Freeman, have stayed with the company, having set the wheels in motion almost a decade ago. 'We know the landscape has changed, and fight fans love fast action,' explained Smith. 'I grew up in an era of Benn, Eubank and Collins, and I loved boxing, but it has changed. BKB brings a different appeal, and our stance is that we were always looking to make 50/50 fights.' Greg Bloom, a US attorney and a strategic instigator for the company, completes a quartet of the fight company's leaders. Bloom, with three decades in the fight industry, working contractually with many names in boxing and the UFC, was interviewed on the Jim White and Simon Jordan show on Talksport last week, and claimed that 'bare knuckle will be as big as boxing in two years'. Quite an assertion, which Bloom reiterated to Telegraph Sport after the thrilling show in Cardiff. 'Look how the fighters performed; and how entertained the fans were. We are building from the bottom up, and it grows month on month,' he explained. The UK/USA alliance will see 16 events this year, eight in the UK; eight in the United States, for the roster of almost 200 fighters. Last night in the co-main and main events, fans witnessed Emil Markic, a Croatian who has fought elite contenders in gloved boxing's cruiserweight division – including former world champion Tomasz Adamek, the UK's Callum Johnson, and current no 5 WBC contender Brandon Glanton – losing a brutal 18-minute battle with Birmingham's Dan Podmore, the incumbent bridgerweight (225lb) champion. In the main event, local hero Liam Rees retained the super-welterweight crown against Martin 'The Rebel' Refell, who had his wife in his corner. The quartet all displayed heart, resilience and at times, guts beyond belief. What was also clear, speaking to the fighters on the card, is the transformation they have undergone through their involvement in this most visceral of sports. Fighters are liberated from their mental-health issues, and if the knuckles are bared, so indeed are the souls. Sitting talking with the fighters is often like filming a gritty, real-life documentary. One of the competitors told me that he had been close to committing suicide two years ago. 'Fighting and boxing has been my salvation,' he explained. 'I have found God, I'm a family man and I'm on the straight and narrow.' This narrative is repeated over and again, with the fighters' stories and replete fighting skills now broadcast to more than 30 countries. The past two events have been on Talksport in the UK, Vice television is the broadcast partner in the US, and a Hispanic TV deal is about to be inked. Indeed, there is also a rival fight league, BareKnuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), with former MMA star Conor McGregor having bought a controlling stake in the company. There are signs that he may even have a fight in the future. Scott Burt, BKB's fight historian, runs the Bare Knuckle Boxing Hall of Fame just outside Buffalo, New York, and oversees the original barns where Sullivan trained under William Muldoon, the famous 'physical culturist' who also trained President Roosevelt and Harry Houdini. Sullivan was the first heavyweight champion of gloved boxing and the last heavyweight champion of the bare-knuckle variety under the London Prize Ring Rules. The Police Gazette belts presented to the fighters in Cardiff come from the same lineage, which delivers a huge dose of history and authenticity. The belts had been on the shelf for a century. Burt, a former teacher, sees his role as being given a 30-year project to educate the world on the previous Police Gazette belts. 'When I opened up the barns [which had been owned by the local church] it was all still there, including the shackles Muldoon tied Sullivan to to stop him drinking.' Fascinating history, which brings us to the modern day, and the drive to take BKB to the mainstream sports landscape. Smith explained: 'Myself and Jim [Freeman] were driven genuinely by the excitement 10 years ago. We were bored of jab, jab boxing. We want thrilling fights. That's what we have at BKB.' Freeman added: 'People want action – and have changed the way they consume things.' Similarly, Vasquez honed his love of boxing watching Marvin Hagler, Thomas Hearns, Ray Leonard and Roberto Durán. 'The 'Four Kings' thrilled us. Then the [Floyd] Mayweather era took that away. This could be the No 1 combat sport purely because of the times we are living in; people want to be entertained. And our fighters are built to do that.' It was certainly the case in Cardiff on Saturday night.
