Thiago Alves takes on Julian Lane at BKFC 12, which takes place live, September 11th on the Bare Knuckle TV App. Phil Baroni was initially slated to fight Alves at the Florida show, but The New York Badass dropped out close to the event day. Julian Lane stepped up to take on Pitbull in this main event.
“It was a little bit of a last-minute change. I didn’t know honestly until I saw it online. Guess there was a miscommunication between my management and their management,” Alves told Cageside Press recently. “I literally took a nap then I woke up, looked at Instagram, and saw that my opponent changed.”
The switch-up did little to dissuade Alves and the circumstances actually seem even more favorable for the former UFC welterweight title challenger.
“No worries, I’m prepared. When you’re in shape, when you’re ready, it doesn’t matter who you fight….The good thing about Lane is he has a lot of fights in bare-knuckle boxing. So we’re able to actually come up with a phenomenal strategy to pick him apart and put him away,” explained Alves. “So I actually like this match-up better.”
Alves sees Lane as a hungry, young guy coming to throw down. That being said, he had said that he thinks he will put Lane away in either the third or fourth round.
Farewell UFC, Hello BKFC
The tenured UFC veteran has been stirring up intrigue with this fight and many are curious to see him in a bare-knuckle setting. “Thank god for all my years of MMA. I’ve built up a good platform,” Alves told us. “Everybody knows I always come to fight. Making the switch to bare-knuckle boxing, I’m bringing a little bit of my fanbase.”
Alves continued, adding “You get cut a lot. That’s the reality of it. It’s just bones and knuckles against a face and the flesh is very fragile. I’m excited and it’s a very safe sport. Not really worried about getting cut.”
Having been to BKFC 10 live, Alves was impressed. Years with the UFC and seeing how finely tuned of a machine they are, Alves was impressed with BKFC’s efficiency in promoting their February live event.
Their BKFC 11 return card after the COVID-19 event hiatus was at a reduced capacity and this show too will have a select amount of fans in attendance. “David [Feldman] said it’s going to be about fifty percent capacity but to keep everybody safe probably keep it to 35ish.”
BKFC 12
Thiago Alves has been mixing in different MMA and boxing gloves for his pre-fight preparations. MMA gloves work from the same distance as bare-knuckle for Alves. His first five MMA fights were bare-knuckle in Brazil but it was MMA w/ headbutts.
The aforementioned enthusiasm for Thiago Alves going to BKFC is not just isolated to fight fans but the man himself is thrilled at the prospect of toeing the line.
“It’s a whole new fight for me. I’m used to having so many different tools and so many different other things to worry about. Now its kind of narrowed down a little bit and how I’m going to go about using the tools that I have,” he stated. “It’s fun, man. I’ve always been a huge fan of boxing. I love the sweet science. I’m a striker by trade.”
Alves continued, “It fits me well. This fighting style. The ring being a little bit smaller. The two-minute rounds with one-minute rest. It’s crazy, I never had this ability to just explode and rest, explode and rest. It fits my body type as well.”
