Reggie Barnett Jr vs. Johnny Bedford II Title Bout Headlines BKFC 20

Johnny Bedford BKFC
Charles Bennett and Johnny Bedford Credit: Ryan Nixon/BKFC

Reggie Barnett Jr vs Johnny Bedford II will take place before the Summer ends.

The rematch has been booked as the main event contest of BKFC 20, set for August 20. It’s apropos that this championship collision transpires at BKFC 20 and tops the marquee on the 20th.

There was an initial dialogue about the championship fight happening at BKFC 19. However, the fight is now being targeted for the organization’s subsequent card. No reason has been given for the switch-up in dates.

With Dat Nguyen was stripped of his hardware after a dispute with BKFC, the vacant 135-pound throne is looking for a new occupant presently.

The announcement of Bedford versus Barnett Jr part two came per promotional figurehead David Feldman, via a recent podcast on the BKFC Youtube channel.

The anticipated sequel for the BKFC and Police Gazette belts goes down in Biloxi, Mississippi.

Reggie Barnett Jr previously contended for the Police Gazette and BKFC lightweight world championships. Barnett Jr’s lone bare-knuckle boxing loss came in the first fight with Johnny Bedford. He tasted defeat via unanimous decision at BKFC 6 in a bid for those aforementioned belts.

Barnett Jr’s last outing saw him halt DeMarcus Corley via fourth-round TKO at BKFC 16. The decorated gloved boxing world champion did not rise up from the stool between rounds and the bout stopped thereafter.

Reggie Barnett Jr is riding a three-fight win streak heading into this sophomore crack at the pair of belts that sit at the top of the 135lb hierarchy.

Johnny Bedford is the former divisional kingpin and is looking to return to the win column after dropping his championship hardware. The loss came to the aforementioned Dat Nguyen via unanimous decision at BKFC Knucklemania.

Bedford had a five-fight BKFC win streak snapped and took his first-ever BKFC loss in that Nguyen outing.

“Brutal” Johnny Bedford is presumably hungry and chomping at the belt to secure an emphatic victory, so as to start carving out a path back to donning the pair of belts he once held.

Bedford has nearly forty fights as an MMA combatant and was an Ultimate Fighter Season 14 cast member as well as a multi-fight UFC veteran.