SPOILER ALERT
This is old news but there was a second bare knuckle event in Biloxi, Mississippi on the 25th of August. I didn't see the first event but I have seen a video of the Biloxi fights. And I was taken by how different bare knuckle is from prizefighting.
The first thing that caught my eye was fundamental differences in the rules. First, the ring is round. The ropes joining the eight "corner posts" are curved so the ring actually is round. And there's a 3-foot square marked off in the middle of the ring. At the start of each round, the fighters must "toe the mark," standing separated by one yard and waiting for the referee to signal the start of the round.
The BKFC does five 2-minute rounds. They use 3-judge 10-point must scoring, no 3-knockdown rule, and no standing 8-count. And fighters can take a knee (literally) to get a 30-second time-out. This dates back to the 1743 Broughton's rules of boxing. Apparently back then the tactic was regarded as "unmanly" but there otherwise was no penalty. Now it reflects on the judge's scorecards.
And they can still punch while in a clinch. I don't know if it's codified in the rules but one tactic I saw used repeatedly, if the fighters are in a clinch and one holds up his hands to the referee, the referee will call for a clean break. Otherwise, they continue to punch with the free hand while holding the opponent on with the other.
I don't find it in Broughton’s seven rules but the way these fights were refereed, striking was not limited to the knuckle area of the fist. Like where the white stripe is painted across the knuckles on Olympic boxing gloves. There was a lot of intentional 'cuffing,' striking with the palm-side of a closed fist, and I once heard a commentator refer to a particular blow one fighter delivered as a "hammerfist."
The 'cuffing' I think is done to limit hand injuries, and fighters aim more punches at the body for the same reason. Punches to the head tend to be aimed mostly at the face rather than the harder parts of the skull.
Nonetheless, I think at least two of the fighters in BKFC2 broke hands. One fighter obviously broke both hands. He took a knee when he broke the first one but soldiered on, at least until be broke the second one. Then he verbally quit. Another fighter verbally quit while lying on his back on the canvas, I don't think because he was hurt but because he was too exhausted to continue. But he was getting roughed up pretty good, so I think he was cutting his losses. That seems to be a theme in the BKFC. No point getting bare knuckle kind of hurt when there's no chance of a pay-off.
Strategically it is very different from prizefighting. Lots more stalking. Sorta like this:
FF to ~10 minutes to get my point.
Okay, that's an exaggeration, but some of the fighters were a lot more ...selective ...about when they chose to engage their opponent.
In one respect I think it's like professional MMA was 20 years a go. It's going to take a while for fans to educate themselves to understand the nuances of bare knuckle. Because this is a completely new beast. But at the same time, because of the increased level of competition the sport going legit will bring, the nature of the fighting is certain to undergo rapid evolution, too. So only time will tell whether it will attract and hold interest long enough for fans to gain an appreciation for the sport, which probably will have to take place while the nature of the fighting is changing rapidly.
But they're giving it a legitimate shot. The president of the BKFC said they have another event scheduled for 20 October (location not yet determined). And possibly another in November. But he said they definitely have eight events on slate for 2019, probably in eight different states.
And it shows all the signs of being a well-funded, quality operation. At least they show no signs of scrimping on the support staff. The expert commentator in the box is former LHW prizefighting champion Antonio Tarver. And I thought he did a respectable job.
One of their referees was Dan Miragliotta (my guess is that neither 'Big John' McCarthy nor Herb Dean has ever had need of getting a referee's license in Mississippi) and the cut man was -- who else? -- Stitch "Geraldo Santana" Duran.
And they have four ring girls. Unlike the UFC, where the ring girls take turns by round, all four of BKFC's ring tootsies parade around each round. So how could they fail?
I found it interesting for this particular BKFC, the main event was a women's fight. I wouldn't say it was the most exciting fight of the night, but it did have Bec Rawlings going for it. Because Bec (IMHO) is drop-dead gorgeous. Despite trying to disguise her good looks with outrageous hair-doos, lots of "what the fuck is that supposed to be?" tattoos, and a really outlandish personality.
Bec had a really lackluster 2-7 stint in the UFC (7-8 in MMA overall) but [SPOILER ALERT] she's now 2-0 in the BKFC. But I think I can safely say, dat bitch be bad ass. Mother of two and professional bare knuckle boxer. And she's gorgeous. I'd give a dollar just to sniff the seat of her bicycle. Two dollars if she'd rough me up after.
I would never encourage anyone to undertake in any illegal or unlawful activity, however, if you're surfing the web and happen to stumble across a pop-up showing a pirated copy of the second bare knuckle fighting championship, I don't see the harm in letting the video run for a bit, just to get the feel of the fighting, before you click the X in the upper right corner.
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