David Tetreault has been doing great things as BKB’s CEO so far, including a supremely short-notice pivot into booking one of the biggest bare-knuckle bouts of all time. During a BKB 58 media day at KO Zone in Miami while addressing Mark O’Neill dropping out of the card due to visa issues and how the promotion responded, Tetreault said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Oh yeah, there’s a hell of a lot to talk about. We’ve changed our main event to Gustavo Trujillo versus Mick Terrill. It’s an incredible 16 hours. It’s a journey that we’ve been on. It all came together because of our fighter first ethos inside of our company. We were able to sit down as executives, figure out a plan when unfortunately [Mark] O’Neill was not able to get through with his visa. We did have a replacement in Jarome Hatch. Interestingly enough, we already had Mick Terrill heading to the US to come to the fight to do a faceoff with the winner. When he saw that the fight had fell apart, he contacted us. He contacted us and said, “I’ll fight him if you’re interested.” We made that happen in 16 hours. We worked very closely with Trujillo’s camp, very closely with Mick’s Camp, and we got it done. That’s going to be one hell of a fight. Probably one of the biggest bare knuckle fights ever.”
When mentioning how this bout not only stands as a testament to the temerity and gamesmanship of the fighters, but something that speaks volumes to the comprehensiveness and effectiveness of the BKB team behind the scenes, Tetreault stated
“Yeah. I really appreciate you recognizing that because in traditional boxing stuff like this would never happen. With other organizations I think it’s highly unlikely that this would happen. It really comes from the whole environment that our chairman and owner Mike Vazquez has fostered from the beginning. He’s a very fair person and with that and the way that he was able to set up NASCAR Mexico. He has an understanding of the sports game. My background serving many years as a chief business officer at Golden Boy, I’ve dealt with a lot of issues with fights falling apart and figuring out ways around it. So with being able to bring our whole team together and the fighters together, it speaks volumes about how we treat our fighters. How quickly we can move and pivot into making good decisions.”
BKB 58 touches down in the promotion’s major hub as they target additional global expansion
Touching on this card, which is centric on Cuban combatants like Yordan Fuentes, Alberto Blas, and Yampier Ramirez, Tetreault added,
“Yeah, like I mentioned, Miami is one of our major hubs. LA is going to become one of our major hubs. London, Manchester, Newcastle. Then we’re going to be opening up Mexico September 19th. We just signed a partnership with Xan [sp???] for Boxing. They’re going to be our co-promoter throughout Mexico and Latin America, helping us operationally, helping us with fighters and their cards, working with us on marketing, and that’s going to be a hell of an event. With Julian Fernandez defending his title in his hometown, Tijuana, that’s a big, big step, you know. So, a lot of different pivots within the organization to really take it and push it on a worldwide stage.”
Offering up his final parting thoughts during the on-location interview at KO Zone during the fight week media day for BKB Miami, Tetreault said
“You know, I would just say that, Gareth [A. Davies] hit it on the nose that this event here in Miami on Saturday night is our capstone to our summer of BKB. The summer of BKB started June 27th with Lee Selby making his debut to a victory. Then it continued in LA with Victor Ortiz victorious. Then July 25th with the Vargas brothers making their debuts in London which was on fire, and I knew bringing the boys to London was going to be a gamechanger. It’s opening the door to new signings. It’s opening the door to new opportunities. Also, Mick Terrill on that card, won that. Here we are with the last fight for the summer of BKB here in Miami. Top to bottom, that card is stacked, and that’s the way we roll here. We just bring really good fights, really good opportunities, and we create ultimate environments for the fans to enjoy themselves.”
