Bare Knuckle FC (BKFC) is launching a pension plan for its fighters.
The news was announced by promotion officials on Thursday and will take effect as of the BKFC 17 card taking place April 30 in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Our fighters are the most important asset of the company,” BKFC president Dave Feldman said in a prepared statement sent to MMA Fighting. “We want to ensure that they are compensated not only on the night of the fight, but also looked after in retirement. For each BKFC fight, money will be placed in a pension account for them to draw on upon retirement.
“BKFC is the hottest, fastest growing and most exciting sport in the world, and we want to ensure that our fighters are taken care of in every possible way.”
As per Feldman, only fighters with multi-fight deals are eligible for the pension plan.
Additionally, payments will only be received by the fighters after they retire from fighting or a mininum of five years have passed since BKFC have made any contributions.
“I did that for a reason,” Feldman added. “I’ve been in this sport for a long time and I’ve seen my dad put a lot of money away for fighters in the past and they did everything they could to break it. A lot of them went broke.
“That’s why we put a minimum of five years on it, so they have it and they’re not just going to go out and blow it. They’re going to have it when they need it.”
All said and done, it’s certainly a great initiative which many of the top MMA organizations could follow.
What do you make of this move by BKFC?