Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) will be providing a pension fund for fighters beginning with the April 17 card on April 30. BKFC President Dave Feldman revealed the historic news to MMA Fighting Thursday in a prepared statement. “Our fi…
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) will be providing a pension fund for fighters beginning with the April 17 card on April 30. BKFC President Dave Feldman revealed the historic news to MMA Fighting Thursday in a prepared statement. “Our fighters are the most important asset of the company,” Feldman said. “We want to ensure that […]
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 […]
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’s better than having one heavyweight star on your roster? Two Heavyweight stars. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is currently in talks with MMA legends, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos. Both the ex-champ and the former title challenger were surprisingly cut from the UFC roster earlier in the week. Overeem was cut just weeks […]
What’s better than having one heavyweight star on your roster? Two Heavyweight stars.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is currently in talks with MMA legends, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos.
Overeem was cut just weeks after his devastating KO loss to Russian contender Alexander Volkov in February. Before that, Overeem was riding an impressive win streak over the likes of Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai. He has won 4 out of his last 6 fights, but at the age of 40, his days in the UFC were numbered.
The future hall-of-famer would go on to make a statement following the last call from the UFC.
Junior Dos Santos would also be caught in the same contract-ending carnage as “The Demolition Man.” The former Heavyweight kingpin was notified of his release just about the same time as his former foe. The 37 year-old on the other hand was left on a trail of losses. Dos Santos had dropped 4 straight, losing to top of the division including Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and lastly Ciryl Gane.
Dos Santos fought a plethora of killers, going through murderer’s row to eventually capture the title of ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ when he knocked out Cain Velasquez at the peak of his career. He would also go on to defeat current champ Stipe Miocic among the likes of Mark Hunt, Frank Mir and Derrick Lewis.
“Cigano” released the following on his social media:
The question on everybody’s minds is what’s next for these two warriors?
RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara expressed interest in signing Overeem to fight once again in Japan, like he did decades ago. However, only if the money is right. The dangerous duo of free agents caught the eye of another promoter in a totally different sport than MMA. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC).
BKFC boss David Feldman was intrigued by both Overeem & Dos Santos and sees great potential in a crossover from 4-ounce gloves to no gloves at all.
“Yes, we are interested in both Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.” Feldman told BJ Penn. We have already made contact with them and their teams. Let’s see what happens.”
Is BKFC the right move for Overeem and Dos Santos?
What’s better than having one heavyweight star on your roster? Two Heavyweight stars. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is currently in talks with MMA legends, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos. Both the ex-champ and the former title challenger were surprisingly cut from the UFC roster earlier in the week. Overeem was cut just weeks […]
What’s better than having one heavyweight star on your roster? Two Heavyweight stars.
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is currently in talks with MMA legends, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos.
Overeem was cut just weeks after his devastating KO loss to Russian contender Alexander Volkov in February. Before that, Overeem was riding an impressive win streak over the likes of Walt Harris and Augusto Sakai. He has won 4 out of his last 6 fights, but at the age of 40, his days in the UFC were numbered.
The future hall-of-famer would go on to make a statement following the last call from the UFC.
Junior Dos Santos would also be caught in the same contract-ending carnage as “The Demolition Man.” The former Heavyweight kingpin was notified of his release just about the same time as his former foe. The 37 year-old on the other hand was left on a trail of losses. Dos Santos had dropped 4 straight, losing to top of the division including Francis Ngannou, Curtis Blaydes, Jairzinho Rozenstruik, and lastly Ciryl Gane.
Dos Santos fought a plethora of killers, going through murderer’s row to eventually capture the title of ‘Baddest Man on the Planet’ when he knocked out Cain Velasquez at the peak of his career. He would also go on to defeat current champ Stipe Miocic among the likes of Mark Hunt, Frank Mir and Derrick Lewis.
“Cigano” released the following on his social media:
The question on everybody’s minds is what’s next for these two warriors?
RIZIN CEO Nobuyuki Sakakibara expressed interest in signing Overeem to fight once again in Japan, like he did decades ago. However, only if the money is right. The dangerous duo of free agents caught the eye of another promoter in a totally different sport than MMA. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC).
BKFC boss David Feldman was intrigued by both Overeem & Dos Santos and sees great potential in a crossover from 4-ounce gloves to no gloves at all.
“Yes, we are interested in both Junior dos Santos and Alistair Overeem.” Feldman told BJ Penn. We have already made contact with them and their teams. Let’s see what happens.”
Is BKFC the right move for Overeem and Dos Santos?
Chris Leben is happy in his retirement, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be coaxed out of it if the money was right. the 40-year-old had actually intended to hang up the gloves after his five-round war against Dakota Cochrane at BKFC. However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, it put a pause on his plans […]
Chris Leben is happy in his retirement, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be coaxed out of it if the money was right.
the 40-year-old had actually intended to hang up the gloves after his five-round war against Dakota Cochrane at BKFC. However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, it put a pause on his plans to open up a new gym and gave BKFC matchmaker Nate Shook an idea.
“The Dakota Cochrane fight, there was a lot of things in the build up to that fight that didn’t work out well for me. The weight cut and everything else,” Leben explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “Nonetheless, the fight was a five-round war. Obviously, the judges had it going the other way but for me, I was actually happy that I went out on a bloodbath fight. I fought all five rounds. I was OK, that’s it, I’m done.
“It was really (BKFC matchmaker) Nate Shook was in my ear. He’s like ‘I know all the stuff before the fight that you were going through, you should go out on a win.’”
Despite finishing his MMA career at 22-12 and holding a 3-1 record in bare-knuckle boxing, something about finishing his career off a loss didn’t sit right with Leben.
“I love Nate but being a little bit of a promoter though. I was like yeah, I should go out on a win,” Leben said. “It would be way better to retire with a ‘W’ than an ‘L.’
“I start thinking about it, I’m like I’m healthy with Covid and everything else going on, there’s not a lot I can do in the way of reffing and focusing on opening my gym out here so I’m kind of a landing pattern, more or less, until this vaccination gets out further. So let’s do it. You’re right. I went for it.”
The decision ended up paying dividends, as Leben stopped Quentin Henry in just 67-seconds. Afterwards, he was able to make good on his promise and retire from combat sports for good. He plans to spend the next chapter of his life being a coach and mentor to young up-and-coming fighters, much the same way Robert Follis was to him. But if someone were to offer him a substantial paycheck, perhaps against a certain internet-celebrity-turned-boxer, he wouldn’t say no.
“Unless I’m fighting Jake Paul or something crazy like that, that’s it. I’m done,” Leben said. “I really don’t have a desire, I don’t have anything to prove. If I did, it’s because somebody wants to pay me a zillion dollars.”
Paul has called out a number of notable MMA stars, and is currently training for a boxing match against Ben Askren. a number of fans have reached out to Leben over social media and suggested he should be the one to silence the YouTube star. While Leben may not like the way Paul has done things, he doesn’t fault him for taking advantage of his opportunities.
“Honestly, a lot of people want to act like they’re true martial artists and they’re pure to the sport and it’s a disgrace. That’s all bulls—,” Chris Leben said. “Listen, they’re bringing a lot of eyes to combat sports. They’re bringing a lot of attention and a lot of focus and that’s good for us. Right now, BKFC is the fastest-growing sport in the world. Combat sports are now in everybody’s home. These combat sports athletes are household names. 10 years ago, that wasn’t the case. People are getting greedy. Don’t act like that.
“Let’s take it. It makes sense. It makes money. It draws attention. It’s like Conor [McGregor] fighting [Floyd] Mayweather, look that’s a great fight. It was great for MMA. It was great for boxing. Because you had the MMA fans watching the MMA guy, you had MMA guys ordering a boxing pay-per-view. Now all of a sudden you’ve got crossover fans, more embedded in combat sports as a whole. I think there’s no bad about it.”
“Absolutely [I’d fight Jake Paul]. You want to put an extra zero on my paycheck to fight that guy? I just fought Quentin Henry. Yeah, absolutely could fight that guy.”
Do you want to see Chris Leben matched up against Jake Paul?
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president, Dave Feldman, is close to finalizing another fight for Paige VanZant just weeks on from her unsuccessful debut against Britain Hart. The former UFC fighter started slowly against Hart but rallied late to make the fight fairly close on the judge’s scorecards. Ultimately, VanZant dropped to a decision defeat. Despite […]
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president, Dave Feldman, is close to finalizing another fight for Paige VanZant just weeks on from her unsuccessful debut against Britain Hart.
The former UFC fighter started slowly against Hart but rallied late to make the fight fairly close on the judge’s scorecards.
Ultimately, VanZant dropped to a decision defeat. Despite that Feldman was impressed with her performance and the pay-per-view numbers she brought in.
“The main event, we invested a lot into Paige VanZant and she showed up and fought really, really well,” Feldman told MMA Fighting. “I think that we can build upon that.
“[The pay-per-view] did good for us. It’s going to hit six figures. I don’t know where that’s going to end up but that’s a pretty good number for us right now for where we are. That’s a good number. It was a good event for us. It was profitable. Everything went very, very well for us. So all around it was just a very, very good ending for us.”
VanZant’s future in the sport appeared to be unclear after the defeat but Feldman is 100 percent confident she will fight again for BKFC later this year.
“I can confidently say Paige VanZant absolutely will be back with us here in early to mid-summer,” Feldman revealed. “100 percent. We are 100 percent in the Paige VanZant business. We like being in that business. She delivered for us on every aspect we needed and finished the fight strong so that was very important for us. Had she started the fight fast and not finished strong and went a whole different direction, it could be a different conversation but she finished strong and showed the heart she had and that she could adapt to this sport and she did. We’re happy of the performance.
Next up, VanZant will face a “well known” opponent according to the BKFC boss.
“Pretty sure we have the opponent,” Feldman teased. “We’re just dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s on this one. It’s another well-known name and I think the public is really going to get behind this one. I think it’s going to be a really competitive fight.”
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 […]
What’s better than having one heavyweight star on your roster? Two Heavyweight stars. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is currently in talks with MMA legends, Alistair Overeem and Junior Dos Santos. Both the ex-champ and the former title challenger were surprisingly cut from the UFC roster earlier in the week. Overeem was cut just weeks […]
(@juniorcigano)
Chris Leben is happy in his retirement, but that doesn’t mean he couldn’t be coaxed out of it if the money was right. the 40-year-old had actually intended to hang up the gloves after his five-round war against Dakota Cochrane at BKFC. However, when the coronavirus pandemic hit, it put a pause on his plans […]
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president, Dave Feldman, is close to finalizing another fight for Paige VanZant just weeks on from her unsuccessful debut against Britain Hart. The former UFC fighter started slowly against Hart but rallied late to make the fight fairly close on the judge’s scorecards. Ultimately, VanZant dropped to a decision defeat. Despite […]