It looks like Saturday’s bareknuckle boxing debut for Eddie Alvarez was not just a one-off.
The former UFC and Bellator lightweight champion plans to return to the BKFC ring after a successful debut for the promotion with a win over fellow ex-UFC fighter Chad Mendes in a split decision. The was the co-main event of BKFC 41 at 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo.
Alvarez says fans can expect a return to the ring from “The Underground King.”
“I’ll be fighting again,” Alvarez told reporters at the BKFC 41 post-fight news conference. “I say this because this training camp for me was like, I wanted to try something new. This is something new for me. I’ve never done this before. But when you take away the wrestling and the kicks and the knees and the elbows – I know my face looks like this, but this is going to go away in two weeks. The training camp was so much more enjoyable than an MMA training camp. Chad would know this and guys who do MMA would know this. The training camp for bareknuckle is so enjoyable.
“I had a lot of fun. My coaches had a lot of fun learning the nuances of the sport. I took a shot. I tried something new. More importantly, I did it because I got Chad. I was going to sit for as long as I needed to sit before I got an opponent where fans would get really excited about. I got the opponent and I think it showed tonight why I took the fight.”
Alvarez, who’s been around the fight game for close to two decades, is high on bareknuckle boxing’s ceiling, specifically BKFC as a promotion. BKFC has become popular in recent years, and Alvarez thinks it’s bound to get even bigger.
“I say that because when you look at every sport and the evolution of every sport – basketball started the shot clock, football started to wind things down and shorten up the play to make it more action packed,” Alvarez said. “I felt that in there today, and I was able to recover and keep it exciting because it’s only 10 minutes. It’s so difficult to fight for five five-minute rounds.
“Everybody who fought knows how big of a feat that is. It’s so ridiculous. So to shorten it up to 10 minutes, it makes it more action-packed, more feasible. I think the fans win, I win, Chad wins, we all win when we’ve got to fight for two-minute (rounds).”
For more on the card, visit MMA Junkie’s event hub for BKFC 41.
