The former multi-time title challenger in UFC and Bellator MMA will enter the world of gloveless combat but he was not the only former UFC title challenger that the bare-knuckle fighting organization has enlisted the services of. Thiago Santos was also announced as a new signee at the massive press event leading into the promotion’s BKFC 78 effort in Hollywood, Florida this weekend. Romero and Santos have a bit of a history with one another as the former defeated the latter at the PFL vs. Bellator card by way of a unanimous decision.

The 48-year-old has recently been active on the Dirty Boxing Championship circuit with Romero picking up victories over Duane Crespo and Ras Hylton under the DBX banner.

BKFC also signs an additional pair of UFC veterans

Also at this massive media event that featured a variety of assembled world, European, and UK champions, another pair of UFC fighters were announced as new signees for bare knuckle.

Aspen Ladd will be knuckling up and toeing the line after taking a handful of fights on the Bellator MMA and PFL circuits after her 2022 departure from the UFC. Ladd has tested skills against several former UFC and Bellator champions across multiple weight categories including Kayla Harrison, Julia Budd, Raquel Pennington, and Germaine de Randamie.

Also, former stalwart UFC middleweight Derek Brunson will be stepping into the world of bare-knuckle. Brunson had a lone fight in the PFL smart cage after his UFC tenure ended in 2023 which was a run that saw him fight names like Dricus du Plessis, Darren Till, Israel Adesanya, Lyoto Machida, Anderson Silva, and Robert Whittaker to name a few.

All of the aforementioned signees not having debut opponents locked in, as expressed by the organization at the BKFC Champions Summit press conference.

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Former UFC staples Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stephens will headline then event. For Alvarez it’s a fight on home turf where the ‘Underground King’ made his up the pro MMA ranks.

Alvarez (1-1 BFKC) holds a victory over fellow former UFC fighter Chad Mendes in BKFC. He also holds a loss to BKFC star Mike Perry.

Stephens (2-0) holds wins over Jimmie Rivera and Bobby Taylor.

More matchups are expected to be announced during the press conference.

Alvarez’s run in the UFC came after a long time stint spent with Bellator MMA. In UFC he went (4-3-1) with wins against Justin Gaethje, Rafael dos Anjos, Antony Pettis and Gilbert Melendez. He took the title from RDA before dropping it against Conor McGregor just a couple of months later. He also holds a win over Michael Chandler when the two were with Bellator.

Stephens UFC run in the UFC lasted much longer with the former featherweight going 15-18-1 in his time there. He’s fought the who’s who of the 145 division in the UFC including Max Holloway, Melendez, Doo Ho Choi, Josh Emmett, Jose Aldo and Yair Rodriguez to name a few.

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BKFC made the announcement on Tuesday.

PHILLY WILL BE THIS YEARS HOST OF KNUCKLEMANIA! FIRST FIGHT TO DROP IS Philly fight legend @Ealvarezfight vs @LiLHeathenMMA ‼️LIVE AT @WellsFargoCtr! TIX ON SALE NOW! FOR NEXT 48 HOURS USE PASS CODE PHILLYSPECIAL FOR TICKET DISCOUNT HERE: https://t.co/IhQkiU0tmj pic.twitter.com/X9unIdG54J

— Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) November 19, 2024

Alvarez comes off a stoppage loss to Mike Perry last December at BKFC 56. The former UFC lightweight champion went 4-3-1 in his UFC run, and holds a BKFC win over Chad Mendes who he beat by split decision last April.

In the UFC he won the lightweight title in July 2016 from Rafael dos Anjos before dropping it just 4 months later against Conor McGregor at UFC 205. He holds victories over Gilbert Melendez, Anthony Pettis, Justin Gaethje and dos Anjos.

Stephens has been more active than his opponent since leaving the UFC. He went into boxing and fought Jose Aldo to a draw last April before losing to Chris Avila in August on the undercard of the Nate Diaz vs. Jake Paul boxing match. He is 2-0 in BKFC and will take on Alvarez on enemy territory in Philadelphia.

The longtime UFC featherweight went 15-18 during his run in the promotion as a fan favorite with a violent style. He holds wins over Josh Emmett, Doo Ho Choi, Melendez, Renan Barao, Darren Elkins and Dennis Bermudez to name a few.

Bouts announced for Knucke Mania:

• Eddie Alvarez vs. Jeremy Stephens

No other bouts have been announced at this time.

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According to Lake County Sheriff’s Office records Perry was arrested and booked by Clermont Police officers on Oct. 12 at 1:04am EST. He was charged with driving under the influence and refusing to sign a citation requiring a court appearance. Both are second degree misdemeanors in the county.

This was Perry’s first DUI offense according to arrests records. He was released on a $1,500 bond and given a court date of Oct. 30. He faces a maximum of 60 days in jail and a possible $500 fine.

Perry, 33, had a 15-fight run in the UFC dating from 2016 to 2021. Having gone 7-8 during his time in the promotion Perry then moved on to bare knuckle boxing taking Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship by storm in 2022.

The former UFC welterweight holds wins over Jake Ellenberger, Paul Felder, Alex Oliveira, Al Iaquinta and Mikey Gall to name a few. His run in BKFC has seen him earn victories over Michael ‘Venom’ Page, Julian Lane, Luke Rockhold, Eddie Alvarez and Thiago Alves.

After a one-off boxing match with Jake Paul, which he lost via TKO in the 6th round, he said he’d be taking some time off. On top of that he announced the launch of his own Dirty Boxing Championship promotion. As of this post no events have been announced for Mike Perry’s new venture.

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According to an affidavit obtained by Denver7, Sayers was arrested this past weekend after he allegedly shot a man in the head to avenge his son’s death. The shooting took place at Pioneer Park in Commerce City.

While many details are still unknown the arrest affidavit says that the shooting was “probably in retaliation or revenge.” The report states that Sayers approached the victim and shot him in the head at close range. Sayers attempted to shoot him again but his gun malfunctioned.

According to the report witnesses said that Sayers took keys from the victim’s pocket and allegedly attempted to place the gun near his body.

The victim was identified as Malcom Watson, 28, and allegedly a friend of the man accused of killing Sayer’s son in August 2023. The suspect in that murder was Tyrell Braxton who was arrested, but the charges were ultimately dismissed.

Sayers is being held on $1 million bond according to arrest records.

Sayers, 46, fought in Strikeforce from 2011 to 2012 having fought the likes of Anthony Smith, Derek Brunson and Scott Smith. He most recently competed at BKFC this last May scoring a victory over Jeremy Morrison.

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Sigala will be returning after over a year on the sidelines. This following a gruesome leg injury suffered at KnuckleMania III. While she was fully healed in August of last year and stayed busy with academics, it was just a matter of working out when Sigala could return to the BKFC ring.

Sigala will enter the ring for her seventh bare-knuckle boxing bout and will be continuing to make history. Charisa Sigala was previously part of BKFC’s inaugural strawweight title fight and in this looming bout will take part in the first-ever women’s bare knuckle boxing bout in Japan. She already had her passport from a targeted Paige VanZant fight in London years ago and is getting to put it to use for this outing in the land of the rising sun.

Charisa Sigala

The pair of PVZ bout cancellations are still something Sigala does not have a lot of insights into. She had to change her weight for the VanZant contract and it would have been the heaviest Sigala ever fought at. It would have been to the scale of not having to drop weight at all and just train. Sigala stated how she felt she was so much of a threat to VanZant that she had to turn to Power Slap to actually get a win.

She questioned PVZ’s grit to return to BKFC and felt VanZant didn’t do well in gloved boxing against Elle Brooke. Sigala briefly mentioned the former UFC combatant doing well in Power Slap. But also felt she should have been disqualified for her head turning and Sigala intimated that she wasn’t because she’s “Dana’s baby.” Charisa Sigala said she’s right here waiting if VanZant ever comes back to knuckle up and toe the line if the BKFC bout offer versus PVZ ever materializes again.

Super RIZIN 3

Charisa Sigala vs Tai Emery

Getting to share a spot on a card with Manny Pacquiao appears to be something special for Sigala, who has an aunt who married into the family that is Filipino that screamed at the TV over Pac Man during the Christmas holidays. Sigala was a little girl when she saw her aunt’s fervor as he fought arch-rival Marquez.

Gloved boxing, bare-knuckle, and MMA are all featured at Super RIZIN 3. Sigala went to the recent BKFC Pechanga card with her son as it’s close to where she resides and was greeted with a raucous crowd there- but she realizes this RIZIN card will be seven times greater in terms of the cumulative amount of people that are expected to be present.

BKFC

The fans in Japan can expect high output, no quit, and a fervent pace from two proven action fighters among the women in BKFC per Sigala. While she is known as ‘BKFC Sweetheart’, Sigala is one of the most proven action intensive fighters in the company with a seemingly bottomless reserve of guts and tenacity.

She has had notable clashes against Britain Hart in that aforementioned first ever 115 pound title fight for the company (which she took on three days notice) and Sigala’s classic clash at KnuckleMania I vs Taylor Starling, and felt the Starling fight really vaulted BKFC to a higher level of notoriety and put them on the map in a bigger way than the promotion had been previously. Sigala also trained with Tatiana Suarez in her early MMA days and Sigala is now game to fight whoever as well as whenever considering the adversities/ fighting force that she dealt with in Suarez from those training sessions.

Starling and Hart are fighting for the latter’s belt soon and Sigala would love to get back into that title mix for a rematch with either combatant. While she is fighting at a 120 pound catchweight here vs Emery, Sigala wants to go back down to 115 pounds for that sophomore strawweight title bid down the line.

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Emery is training in Dubai out of TK MMA after having spent years training in Thailand and sleeping on cold, hard concrete floors. She was doing everything possible to learn her craft after becoming a combat sports athlete later in the game than many.

Tai Emery is returning to bare-knuckle after a bit over a year and a half. BKFC Thailand 4 was her last bout and she fought eventual BKFC Thailand champion Po Denman and went the distance with someone who has knocked out a man in bare-knuckle.

The COVID years were spent in Thailand and she carved out her name on the BKFC’s circuit out in that country. The promotion is now expanding the sport to Japan and Emery will be making history here in the first-ever women’s bare-knuckle boxing bout to transpire in that country.

Emery had previously targeted spending time in Japan as an exchange student in her younger years. It never came to fruition and she’s now finally visiting the country for the first time years later.

Misfits Boxing has also signed Emery with gloved boxing goals in the future for the former football player as well.

Tai Emery

Through that aforementioned fight vs the BKFC Thailand 115 pound titleholder, Emert discovered a leaking breast implant. Her health is now back in alignment and the vigor for competition as well as the general positivity/ appreciation for life gets to once again be expressed in professional combat sports competition.

BKFC in RIZIN

RIZIN

Super Rizin 3

Tai Emery thinks she can utilize the 120 pound limit to become a vehicle to facilitate entertaining fights with both strawweights and flyweights that bookend this catchweight limit. She has called out Paige VanZant in the past and also seems keen on a fight with BKFC strawweight champion Britain Hart. She pointedly stated that she wants a Hart fight for the Baddest Bitch Belt at a later juncture.

Super Rizin 3 also features BKFC flyweight champion John Dodson fighting Takaki Soya under bare-knuckle rules in a non-title affair. Emery is also honoured to be on a massive card with Manny Pacquiao. She appreciates being on big events with legends as Emery made her bare-knuckle boxing debut on the undercard of Buakaw who also made his first fighting foray into gloveless combat.

Ahead of this landmark moment, Emery is embracing her superstar quality as of late. She has heard about this energy her whole life and now finally feels in a place to best utilize it as her bare-knuckle journey coincides with BKFC’s global expansion efforts.

Towards the end of our chat, Emery jokingly called herself an airheaded killer. But then also stated how she just had a brain scan done with the doctor telling her how thick her skull was all around to the scale of two and a half times more than the average person.

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After nearly 20 professional MMA fights, Soya is making his bare-knuckle debut here. He will be diving into the deep end of the proverbial pool here by taking on a BKFC titleholder in his first foray within this sport.

The training work has obviously shifted for Soya in the lead-up to this matchup. He has had sessions with globally ranked, champion boxers and world-ranked combatants within the sweet science at Watanabe Boxing Gym.

This is a fresh coat of paint for Soya after he had a knee injury last May. On the heels of that, he only had one MMA fight last year. On social media, he targeted a championship for 2024 and with this new opportunity, the focus has seemingly shifted from RIZIN MMA hardware to wanting the BKFC strap.

This would presumably be within his crosshairs if he can win this non-title affair against the reigning Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship king of 125 pounds. That being said, Takaki Soya does want to concurrently compete in mixed martial arts along with bare-knuckle.

As far as when the veteran of Shooto and DEEP was exposed to this permutation of gloveless combat sport, Soya told us recently that “When I was first introduced to the bare-knuckle boxing sport last year in 2023, up until then I had no idea it had even existed. So I saw bare-knuckle boxing clips on social media. It just came on my feed, timeline, I just was introduced to it through social media. I thought it was extreme. I thought it was a very exciting, extreme ruleset. If you call yourself a fighter, you should be able to challenge these rules.”

“These extreme, thrilling rules sometime down the line. So the moment I saw it on my social media feed, I wanted to compete in it as an MMA fighter. So I had an offer for an MMA fight this year. It was supposed to happen, it didn’t happen, then it was supposed to happen again.”

Super RIZIN 3

Soya continued, “But there was some things with my MMA fight and I wasn’t ready for it. So for me to lose an opportunity to fight, I just wanted to fight anything, right? So once that MMA fight fell through, I got an offer for this fight and I took it without hesitation.”

For someone who has a highlight reel finish by way of a soccer kick at RIZIN 16, it says a lot that Soya touts the extreme nature of the BKFC ruleset. The gloveless nature of BKFC drew comparisons from him to Lethwei and Takaki Soya feels the considerations of bare-knuckle are way more extreme than soccer kicks.

The native of Chiba, Japan also is open about having a terminal disease. Because of this, he never knows when his last fight will be. Every time in the ring, Soya sees the moment as he’s “about to burn my life again.” This statement came from an Instagram post regarding this fight.

As he next steps into the fire, he does so versus John Dodson who is a former multi-time UFC flyweight title challenger. Also like Soya, he has also fought under MMA rules with Rizin FF. In regards to Dodson’s resume and skillset within bare-knuckle boxing, Takaki Soya quipped,

“So obviously I’ve studied his MMA fights and in both fights [MMA and bare-knuckle], his style is not too different regardless of the rules. Like his weapons, his athleticism, his speed, his footwork, and his left hand. When you look at his UFC fights, a lot of his knockouts, his finishes come from his left… He uses his strength in BKFC. Beware of his left hand.”

Takaki Soya vs John Dodson

The 29-year-old recently celebrated his five-year anniversary with the company this June. Soya now readies to compete on a card alongside names like boxing legend Manny Pacquiao. That being said, Soya tunes out the noise and tries to focus on the task at hand instead of getting lost in the magnitude of being on a massive combat sports extravaganza like this.

The gigantic event in question will transpire later this week and Takaki Soya looks to shock the world. To do so, he must take out one of the sport’s very best in his first time throwing down with the gloves off.

The post Takaki Soya Will “Burn My Life” Versus John Dodson in BKFC Bout at Super Rizin 3 appeared first on Cageside Press.

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.

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BKFC President David Feldman announced the news on Wednesday’s edition of The MMA Hour, stating it was an honor to work with an MMA pioneer in RIZIN Fighting Federation founder Nobuyuki Sakakibara.

“Today we get to announce an official partnership with BKFC and RIZIN to produce Bare-Knuckle Fighting Championship shows in Japan and all over the South East Asia region, as well as assist RIZIN with whatever they need around the world. We’re starting this off on July 12 with having Shinotsuka fight on our card that we have at Pechanga Casino in California, and then we’re going to have two of our, two big fights on his huge card that [Sakakibara]’s doing, I believe the date is July 29 in Tokyo in front of 40,000 people. That’s going to be our debut in Japan.”

Tatsuki Shinotsuka is a boxer and kickboxer who made his bare-knuckle debut at RIZIN 46, the first-ever bare-knuckle rules fight held under the Japanese promotion’s banner. Shinotsuka knocked out Justyn Martinez in the fight on April 29, 2024 in Tokyo, Japan.

An opponent for the Japanese star on July 12’s BKFC card has not yet been announced. The card’s main event sees Robbie Peralta paired up with Ruben Warr.

Japan’s RIZIN Fighting Federation previously cross-promoted with Bellator for a handful of MMA events, prior to that promotion’s purchase by the PFL.

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