BKFC’s Dustin Pague wasn’t about to miss out on fighting at home as he is set to headline BKFC Fight Night: Philly on March 21 against Andrew Angelcor at 2300 Arena.
Pague (3-2 BKFC) was originally set to take part in BKFC’s flagship event Knucklemania 5 in Philadelphia in January, but a last second cancelation took him out of the event.
“I found out 10 minutes before my arrival at the hotel. Like literally that Thursday morning,” Pague told Eddie Law of Cageside Press.
“Weigh-ins are Friday, fight was Saturday. We’re about 10 minutes away my manager calls me. (I’m) thinking he’s just checking in.”
Unfortunately for Pague this was not a routine call to see how he was doing.
“Hey buddy I got some bad news. I’m like ‘Scott don’t tell me this’. I know when he says I got bad news there could only be one bad news. So he’s like yeah fight’s off. I’m like how? How is this possible? It’s Thursday morning,” Pague said.
“Apparently your opponent failed his medicals.”
Medicals are a routine part of the fight game, but something that gets taken care of before fight week. Pague was confused as to how this could even happen so he went to the source for an answer.
“JD Burns actually gets there, I talk to him face to face, I’m like dude what happened,” he asked.
“Apparently what happened…he had a scar behind his retina which he’s gotten approved for before. It’s no damage to his retina it’s just from a previous injury that healed.”
Burns had gone to a new eye doctor and a mix up between the doctor’s notes and BKFC’s doctors forced them to pull the opponent.
Now he gets another shot at fighting in Philadelphia, and to top it off it’s in the main event against Andrew Angelcor.
“I even found out about this fight probably before lunchtime (that same) Thursday. They’re like hey we’re going to get you back. There’s another Philly event at the end of March. I didn’t know the opponent yet, but they’re like yeah we’re going to make you main event,” he said.
“March 21st it’ll be at 2300 Arena. I was like cool, not as as awesome as the Wells Fargo, but main event that’s great. I’ll sign, whoever you got, shortly after they told me Andrew Angelcor. I was like beautiful.”
Pague was game to fight anybody, but he badly needed a date because he had something else on the calendar that could have caused some issues.
“I get real excited, but also get really nervous because my wife and I leave for vacation March 22nd. I’m like what’s the date? So my manager’s like I’ll find out just calm down,” he said.
“He calles me, ‘It’s back in Philly, you’ll be main event.’ I’m like what’s the date, he’s like March 21st, I’m like alright i’ll sign. So I’m fighting Angelcor main event and then we fly out to Mexico the next day.”
