I’m humble enough to admit I was among those skeptical about BKFC from the start. Shedding the gloves felt sideshow-ish at first, and it seemed like the promotion wouldn’t have the staying power to etch a footprint in the combat sports space.
Following Saturday’s BKFC 41 event at 1STBANK Center in Broomfield, Colo., however, the future looks brighter than ever.
Although BKFC has had some memorable moments since its inception less than five years ago – from the gruesome war between Artem Lobov and Jason Knight to Paige VanZant’s appearances and more – the organization’s 41st event (a number many, including myself, thought it would never reach) was its most impactful to date.
A big debt of gratitude for the traction BKFC 41 received is owed to Conor McGregor, who to the surprise of many, pulled up ringside midway through the card and was the gravitational force we all know him to be. Fans and reporters in the venue posted videos of his every move, the broadcast panned to him at every opportunity, and the icing on the cake was his entry into the ring for an animated faceoff with Mike Perry.
Perry, for his part, is also the perfect face for BKFC. He was built for this style of combat sports, and showed it once again by rearranging former UFC champion Luke Rockhold’s teeth en route to a second-round TKO stoppage in the headlining act of the card.
Although the ending was unfortunate due to Rockhold’s cracked teeth, the booking with Perry was an A+ move by BKFC. Both men did their part in promoting the fight and drawing interest in the weeks leading up, and the BKFC brass put together an ideal undercard cast of MMA notables.
The epic brawl between former UFC champ Eddie Alvarez and Chad Mendes will go down among the wilder fights in company history, with both men dropping each other two times over the course of the five rounds. Then there was plenty of brutality on the undercard, too.
All in all, it’s hard for BKFC to ask for much more than it got Saturday. BKFC president David Feldman wasn’t lying at the post-fight news conference when he said the card was the focal point of the combat sports world, even if part of that was serendipitous with no Bellator or PFL and UFC putting on one of its weaker cards in recent memory – both on paper and in practice – with UFC Fight Night 223.
Scanning through Twitter and other social media platforms, I saw some people suggest BKFC could be legitimate and viable competition for UFC after the success of this event. We can shut that down right now. It’s not happening remotely close to anytime soon, at least, because BKFC simply doesn’t have the roster to consistently compete at the moment. That’s part of the growth process.
A big success for BKFC would be developing a home grown star. It has a handful of fighters on the roster who are becoming better known for their work in BKFC than MMA or boxing, but if someone can build roots in that world and break through, it could be a game changer.
BKFC 42 goes down in less than two weeks on May 12, and you’d really have to stretch to name a single fighter on the card that would be recognizable to the non-hardcore audience who turned into BKFC 41. There’s always going to be a group out there who will watch anything, but it’s the “casual” fans who saw the names Perry vs. Rockhold, Alvarez vs. Mendes, or saw a McGregor clip pop up and opted to check it out, that are the difference maker. That’s the group that needs its attention captured to make real inroads as a brand.
The coverage for every upcoming event on BKFC’s announced schedule will be nowhere equivalent to what it got this weekend, and rightfully so. Not just because the depth of the card don’t meet the standard of BKFC 41, but also because it will be swallowed up with the UFC’s stretch of 11 events over the next 12 weeks. And Bellator’s multiple cards. And the resumption of the PFL season in early June.
This night was a home run for BKFC, no question. The company currently has more positives going for it thank negatives, too. BKFC 41 had the fighter name value, solid production for the viewer and was paced well. The athletes seem to feel well taken care of at large from a financial perspective, as well.
Now BKFC faces the task of trying to put on events of this magnitude more frequently. Can it gobble up more notable fighters in the free agent market? And more importantly, can it keep those free agents around long enough to be useful chess pieces? That will be key in putting on more significant events and taking a bigger share of the limited combat sports pie.
