Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has something in special in
store for the coming year.
BKFC president David Feldman recently announced that the promotion
will hold a $25 million tournament — “the biggest, baddest
tournament that ever took place” — beginning in April 2025.
“It’s going to spread out between nine or 12 months. There’s going
to be tryouts, qualifying rounds and those qualifying rounds are
going to take place in five different continents,” Feldman said
during a post-fight press conference following BKFC Hollywood.
“We’re close to locking in a huge streaming platform that’s going
to have the rights to this thing, so everything is really falling
in place. I can’t give you all the details, but it will be the
biggest, baddest, biggest prize money to find the baddest
motherf—ker on the face of this earth.”
It’s currently unclear how the prize money will be distributed.
However, even the promotion’s biggest stars apparently won’t be
given preferential treatment when it comes to participation.
“Everyone has to try out for it. No one is getting pre-qualified,”
Feldman said. “They have to try out for it and they’re going to
have to fight in qualifying rounds to make the tournament. I mean,
it’s not a joke purse. It’s a real purse, so they have to really
fight.”
One of the aspects still in the works for the tournament is the
division.
“We’re contemplating that now. It’s gonna be a bigger, meaning a
wider-spread weight class. I don’t know what that weight class is
yet,” Feldman said.
The Philadelphia-based BKFC has gained a foothold in the combat
sports world since its inception in 2018 thanks to a fan-friendly
product and a roster that has included former MMA talents such as
Mike
Perry, Eddie
Alvarez, Luke
Rockhold, John Dodson,
Alan
Belcher, Bec
Rawlings, Ben Rothwell
and Jason
Knight, to name a few. Additionally, former UFC two-division
champion Conor
McGregor became a part owner in BKFC earlier this year.
According to Feldman, the tournament isn’t the only significant
development on the horizon.
“2025 is just going to be unbelievably huge,” Feldman said. We have
a lot of announcements that we’re going to make… We’re in the
process of an acquisition that’s gonna change combat sports… We’re
in the position to acquire a major sports promoting platform that’s
gonna change the face of combat sports.”