Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship will be bringing some new star
power to the ring in the near future.
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Promotion president Dave Feldman revealed Wednesday on
”The MMA Hour” that BKFC will feature Luke
Rockhold vs. Mike Perry
and Eddie
Alvarez vs. Chad Mendes
on the April 29 card at the 1stBank Center in Broomfield, Colo.
Rockhold and Alvarez are new free-agent signings for the promotion.
While the majority of BKFC events are available through the app for
a monthly subscription fee, BKFC 41 will air on pay-per-view for
$49.99.
“We have to do it, obviously, to be able to pay for these guys,”
Feldman said.
Rockhold returned from a three-year absence at UFC 279, where he
suffered a unanimous decision loss to Paulo
Costa. The former UFC and Strikeforce middleweight champion
announced his retirement after the bout. He later walked back that
decision after being
granted his release from the UFC. The 38-year-old Californian
lost four of his last five Octagon appearances – three via knockout
or technical knockout.
Perry is 2-0 under the BKFC banner, with victories over Bellator
contender Michael
Page and two-time “Ultimate Fighter” cast member Julian Lane
to his credit. “Platinum went 7-8 during a tenure with the UFC that
began in 2016.
Alvarez
parted ways with One Championship last year after going 1-2
with a no contest while competing for the Singapore based
promotion. In his most recent appearance, the 39-year-old former
UFC and Bellator lightweight champion dropped a unanimous decision
to Rae
Yoon Ok at One on TNT 4 in April 2021.
Mendes retired from MMA in 2019 before
signing with BKFC in 2021. He made his debut in February 2022,
when he defeated Joshuah Alvarez via fourth-round TKO. Mendes is a
former UFC featherweight title challenger who ended his promotion
tenure with losses in four of his last six appearances.