Combat sports sit on the fringe. Most people can name combat sports stars such as boxing’s Floyd Mayweather Jr. and MMA’s Conor McGregor (though both are currently retired), but it is undoubtedly a niche sports taste. And now, that niche is getting its own niche: bare-knuckle boxing.
Bringing boxing back to its original form, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship takes the general rules of boxing with the organizational structure of the UFC. BKFC has also poached some combat sports names: Former UFC fighter Paige VanZant, former U.S. Olympic medalist Nico Hernandez, and former world champion boxer Paulie Malignaggi all signed with BKFC at some point.
BKFC has its own brutish appeal, whether it ever goes mainstream or not. It was the first combat sport to host fans after the pandemic lockdowns. Events such as BKFC 6 with Malignaggi did around 200,000 pay-per-view buys, a likely high point that sits well below the normal events in its more popular counterparts.
Though it makes for a more violent scene than its gloved counterpart, bare-knuckle boxing is probably safer than ordinary boxing. Bare-knuckle boxers have to throw softer punches to avoid breaking their hands, the same reason they throw fewer punches to the head. They also fight fewer rounds, avoiding some of the brain-damage risks of regular boxing.
Maybe these days, when folks are confined within the same four walls more than ever, something about a full-forced, unpadded jab finds a special appeal.
Whether BKFC can carve out a true pedestal in the combat sports world is an open question. The aforementioned Hernandez is planning to jump right back into regular boxing after his BKFC fight. But it’s another fringe sport in a country full of fringe interests, so expect it to be around for a long time.
