Bareknuckle Fighting Championship returned Saturday with arguably its biggest event yet.
BKFC 41 took place in Broomfield, Colo., near Denver, and was a pay-per-view for the promotion. Judging by the numbers on social media, BKFC was the biggest player in the combat sports game this week, and one of the most trending sports events in the world Saturday.
After the event, BKFC president David Feldman spoke to the media about the fights, Conor McGregor’s surprise appearance and what’s next.
ON THE BKFC 41 OVERALL FEELING
Great f*cking night – great f*cking night for BKFC and the sport and the fighters. It was un-f*cking-believable.
ON BKFC 41 ATTENDANCE
We don’t have exact attendance numbers. We did right around 8,000. We did very close to a $1 million gate – phenomenal for being in business for four and a half years, and everybody wrote us off time after time after time again. These fighters came in tonight (and) they delivered. They fought their asses off. They all left it in the middle of that ring. Phenomenal night for us.
ON BKFC BONUSES
Fight of the Night: Chad Mendes vs. Eddie Alvarez. KO of the Night: Dillon Winemiller scored a 7-second knockout – second fastest in BKFC history. (It was a) phenomenal, phenomenal night for us.
ON TAKING A GAMBLE ON BKFC 41
I really, truly just want to thank the fighters from the bottom of my heart. I did a fighter speech and I did it differently this time. I did it from my heart. I told them that I bet my f*cking house on this. I bet my house on this. Well, Christina, we get to keep our house. So thank you, Chris Camozzi. Really great night for us. The fighters left it in the ring. I told them we’re going to give out eight to 10 bonuses. We’re going to give out 10 to 12 bonuses tonight. We’re going to give some extra money to these fighters because they earned it. Great night for us.
ON THE SUCCESS OF BKFC 41
It’s unbelievable. It’s like having a child and watching your child grow up and finally graduates grade school. Then he graduates high school. And tonight, he f*cking graduated college for the first time – unbelievable. I mean, we don’t know what the numbers did. We just know we were trending No. 1 in the world, so it had to do some numbers unless everybody stole the event from us – which could be possible, but at this stage of the game, (piracy) sucks. But we know that tens of millions of people watched this event tonight. It was really the only combat sports event on tonight. And no offense to the UFC, who’s a phenomenal organization, obviously No. 1 in the world – but everybody was watching us tonight.
ON BKFC MATCHMAKING
We’ve got a great matchmaker. Sometimes the fighters get mad at him because he can be a little frugal from time to time, but he puts on great fights. I mean, he puts on great fights. We put on great fights at the organization. A lot of people were saying to me, ‘Who do you want to win? Do you want Luke to win? Do you want Mike Perry to win? Do you want Eddie to win? Do you want Chad to win?’ I want the fans to win. I want a great fight. And when a great fights happen, the fans win – and the fans won tonight.
ON CONOR MCGREGOR'S APPEARANCE
At the end of the day, I was really paying attention to the fights. It was a sold-out crowd – unbelievable crowd here, unbelievable fighters, unbelievable fights. So I don’t want to take away from these guys. But of course, it’s phenomenal to have Conor McGregor here. The No. 1 talked about combat sports athlete in the world jumps in the ring and challenges one of our fighters, and whether it ever happens or not doesn’t really matter. The fact is, it was a viral moment for us, and the fact is when he’s talking about it, everybody else in the combat sports world is talking about it. So it was a great thing for us – definitely a gigantic moment for us.
ON BEC RAWLINGS VS. CHRISTINE FEREA
Really, they were all great. The women’s fight was sensational. Bec Rawlings came to win that title. Unfortunately for her, she suffered a very bad cut eye and wasn’t able to continue, but she came. She brought it. She wanted to win that title, and Christine Ferea showed tonight that she is still one of the baddest women in the world. So nothing really surprised me tonight. It was an awesome night for us. It was an awesome night.
ON LUKE ROCKHOLD
Luke Rockhold got some of his teeth cracked, so that’s why he wasn’t able to continue in case a lot of people were wondering. His teeth definitely got messed up pretty good. What a great start to that fight, right? Great fight.
ON BEN ROTHWELL, CHRIS CAMOZZI
I want to say that Ben Rothwell certainly earned a top contender spot. Chris Camozzi went out there and looked great and certainly showed that he could do the same. But we have some other things possibly in the works. We’re going to know in the next week or so how all that pans out
ON WHAT HE'LL DO NEXT AFTER FIGHT WEEK
Sleep – like seriously. I’m not even trying to be funny. I haven’t slept three hours this week. I need some sleep. I need to spend some time with my family. I need my son to spend some time with his family and my team to spend some time with their family. They finally deserve the day off. So they’re going to have Monday off.
