Jared Warren clashes in a rematch with Jomi Escoboza at BKFC 62 on June 21, 2024. The vacant BKFC light heavyweight championship is up for grabs on a card with a trifecta of title fights. Featherweight and bantamweight gold will also be contested for this weekend.
The first fight between these two marked Escoboza’s lone loss in bare-knuckle which took place during their July 2022 showdown. Of all of Warren’s BKFC wins, Escoboza was the lone fighter to go to the judges’ scorecards.
Jared Warren vs Jomi Escoboza II
When asked about what changes he may have seen in his opponent’s game before their sequel clash, Jared Warren said,
“I watched the two fights he’s had since I fought him. He won them both. It’s not even like a s**t talking kind of thing but I feel like he slowed down a little bit. Even though he won, I felt like he was looking kind of fatigued a bit in those fights. He had said something about he had a knee injury for one of them. So he wasn’t able to run as much or something.”
“But even though I do agree that he won the fights fair and square, I feel like he did slow down some. For me like I never stop training and never stop trying to improve. Because I feel like there’s just an endless amount of things to learn about boxing. So I’m just always in there trying to up my game and I’m definitely a much-improved fighter from our first fight two years ago. I’ve learned a lot of stuff since then.”
Lineal champion Lorenzo Hunt vacated the belt in this weight category. ‘The Juggernaut’ has a title reign at cruiserweight to focus on and also embarked on a recent attempt at BKFC heavyweight gold at KnuckleMania IV. Warren does admittedly wish he could have fought Hunt for this distinction. But that being said, ‘Captain Deadpool’ is just glad it’s a lineal belt and not for interim BKFC gold like his rematch with Josh Dyer was.
Jared Warren
The last fight Warren had saw him finish UK light heavyweight champion Danny Christie in the opening round at BKFC 55. The performance was so impressive that Mike Perry shouted out Warren’s effort there whilst appearing on The MMA Hour.
While BKFC middleweight champion and Shift Combat teammate David Mundell has been gunning for that Perry fight, if things pan out a certain way Warren thinks it would be cool to throw down with the King of Violence champion. Ultimately though, Warren is a true team player and would want his combative compatriot Mundell to get that coveted contest if possible.
The aforementioned Josh Dyer would seem next to fight whoever emerges as the champion. This inference can be made going off the present rankings hierarchy in the promotion.
BKFC 62
Warren has, as mentioned, fought Dyer twice before. When a possible fight down the line was mentioned to him, Jared Warren stated,
“Yeah, I’d definitely entertain it and down the line is key. The reason I say that is because he would need to earn it. If you look at his record, he hasn’t won a fight in almost three years. That’s because his last couple (of) fights which were like bigger paying, bigger name fights with me being included is they both ended on DQ. By something that he did because he was hurt both times. When he fought Joe Riggs, Joe Riggs dropped him.”
“He got up, he headbutted Joe Riggs. Split him open, it was a DQ, it was the end of the fight. Same thing, I fought him, I hurt him in the second round a couple (of) times, and he blasted me in the back of the head after the bell. I mean both times, he was looking for a way out. It sucks for everybody, the fighters involved. The organization doesn’t like it, they don’t want to have to pay to bring a kid back who keeps getting no contests and stuff.”
BKFC
Warren continued, “That being said if he actually went out, won a few fights fair and square then yeah I could see him being a possible contender. But as it sits right now, he doesn’t deserve the s***. Like I’ve been grinding, fighting the best guys consistently for years to get to this point. He’s been sitting on his ass being stupid (laughs).”
That being said, this Dyer discourse is moot unless Warren goes 2-0 over Jomi Escoboza. The number one ranked light heavyweight has a chance to do just that and finally cement himself as a lineal BKFC titleholder this weekend at BKFC 62 in Hollywood, Florida.
