MMA Fighting
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Esther Lin, MMA Fighting
Four title fights will highlight BKFC 18 in June including the return of heavyweight champion Joey Beltran as well as several ex-UFC fighters in action including Thiago Alves, Hector Lombard and Joe Riggs.
The event will take place in Miami with a date and location for the card to be announced in the coming days.
At the top of the card, Beltran will defend his BKFC heavyweight title against Sam Shewmaker, who comes into the fight following a win over Bobo O’Bannon in his most recent appearance in the ring. Shewmaker is 4-1-1 overall in bare-knuckle competition and he’s been part of the promotion since it first launched in 2018.
BKFC president felt ‘sense of vindication’ after study showed bare-knuckle fights have lower concussion rate than MMA or boxing
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Bare Knuckle FC
When Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships first launched in 2018, the newly formed promotion was already battling against the perception that their version of combat sports was far too brutal even when compared to MMA or boxing.
Of course, BKFC president David Feldman had a much different ideal about the bare-knuckle fighting but he also understood that it was going to be an uphill battle against the court of public opinion.
Nearly three years later as BKFC embarks on their final card of 2020 the 15th “numbered” event in the promotion’s history Feldman now has statistics to back up his initial claims that bare-knuckle fights were no more dangerous to an athlete’s health than participating in other combat sports.