Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship is expanding its presence in the combat sports industry, and UFC could be a part of it someday.
A picture of BKFC President David Feldman and UFC CEO Dana White sitting together in a meeting recently surfaced, leading to the curiosity of fans. With the company gradually expanding, including in California and Nevada, speculations about the relationship between UFC and BKFC started. Feldman didn’t share much about the things discussed in the meeting but said that it is making an “ally” in UFC.
“It was more of just creating an ally,” Feldman told MMA Fighting when asked about his meeting with White. “That’s really all I have to say. It was great meeting, he’s a great guy. He’s doing his thing with UFC, and we’re going to do our thing with BKFC. We’re going to be the biggest combat sport on the planet.”
Although Feldman believes that bare-knuckle boxing is different from MMA, some mixed martial artists are considering bare-knuckle as a possible alternative career. For instance, Mike Perry signed with BKFC in October 2021 after almost five years of fighting under the UFC banner. In the bare-knuckle promotion, the fighter grew and was even crowned the “King of Violence.” Tony Ferguson, who is currently struggling with his UFC record, is also being pointed toward the BKFC.
Unfortunately, UFC is not much of a fan of cross-promotion events, especially after White expressed his disgust over the idea of working with PFL. Nonetheless, there seems to be a chance for a possible collaboration between the MMA giant and BKFC. Feldman didn’t say this was something discussed and approved in the meeting but suggested that his company was open to this possibility.
“We want to grow our sport,” Feldman said. “We want to make our sport the biggest it can be. If that means teaming up with other promotions, we have nothing against doing anything like that, because we think that it’s just going to make the sport grow and the company grow and the business grow. So anything that’s going to make it grow, we’re down for it.”
