Once labeled a ‘freak show’ and slammed by the wider combat sports fanbase; Bare-Knuckle Fighting Championship continues to move from strength to strength.
BKFC: KnuckleMania V was held this past weekend, with former UFC stars Eddie Alvarez and Jeremy Stephens throwing down in front of a sold-out Wells Fargo Arena crowd in Philadelphia.
The event was also dominated by one Conor McGregor, who certainly had a blast promoting the event before squaring off with Jeremy Stephens teasing his BKFC debut – a move that’s now being called a ‘stroke of genius’.
Michael Bisping praises Conor McGregor’s BKFC ‘fight announcement’
On the latest episode of the Believe You Me Podcast, UFC legends Michael Bisping and Paul Felder discussed both the BKFC main event and McGregor’s role in the promotion.
“Fair play, we’ve got to say, Jeremy Stephens; I mean he did, knocked him out, and of course, ‘Who da f*** is that guy’, he might be fighting Conor McGregor in bare-knuckle!
“Of course, he’s under contract with the UFC but I’ll say this, and this is far from me being a McGregor nut-hugger – but if there’s one person that knows how to keep himself relevant in the fight world, without actually fighting, it’s Conor McGregor.”
BKFC boss David Feldman revealed after the event that McGregor had expressed his desire to fight in the promotion against his ‘Who da f*** is that guy’ former rival.
“If you want to talk about promoting Bare-Knuckle, that is a stroke of genius,” continued Bisping, who aptly pointed out that “all of the headlines are going to be Conor McGregor vs Jeremy Stephens ‘Is it going to happen?’
“Now, the fight is never going to happen, that would be my guess, but the side-line of it all is that amongst all those headlines, BKFC is being talked about and promoted the entire time.”
Former UFC lightweight Paul Felder ‘100%’ agrees with Bisping’s assessment of McGregor’s promotional skills, even going as far as to state that ‘Notorious’ could make a career out of it.
Paul Felder believes McGregor has a post-fight career in BKFC promotion
Bisping and Felder represent two of only a handful of fighters who have gone on to enjoy incredibly successful post-fight careers in MMA/Combat sports media – and McGregor could soon join them.
“I think that even if Conor never fights anywhere ever again, I do think that he’s got a future doing this stuff as a promoter,” predicted Felder, adding “I mean, he’s got crazy energy [and] he’s insanely popular.
“No matter what he does, people are tuning in whether it’s good news or bad news, fight news, outside-of-the-fight news, if he’s on a bus with Jake and Logan Paul – people want to know what he’s up to and what’s going on.”
Whilst McGregor might be serving BKFC fight fans, Felder also warned about the possibility of getting into legal trouble with the UFC as he’s still under contract with the MMA giant.
“He’s talking about fights and announcing things whilst under contract with the biggest fight organization in the world with the UFC – that might get him in trouble.
“It seemed like a side-show at first but now they’re getting legit names into this sport, they’ve got Conor invested and it’s pretty awesome to see Feldman, who was running MMA shows in Philly, now running [BKFC],” stated the Irish Dragon, before both men agreed that they can “see this sport sticking around for a while.”
The next BKFC event is scheduled for this weekend, February 1, and is headlined by Julian Lane vs Cameron VanCamp.