This past Saturday night, BKFC 41 went down in Broomfield, Colorado and it was the first major PPV event for the promotion. In the main event, former UFC champion Luke Rockhold (0-1) made his Bare Knuckle debut against “Platinum” Mike Perry (3-0).
The fight was incredibly exciting with both men having big moments. Rockhold was able to rock Perry in the first round, but Perry came right back and hurt Rockhold. Perry did some serious damage to Rockhold with straight shots that really messed up Rockhold’s teeth.
It became so bad that Rockhold turned to the referee in the second round to show him the damage and the fight was stopped. Perry earned the TKO win to move to a perfect 3-0 with BKFC. While the main event was great, the star fight of the evening was the co-main event.
Former UFC title challenger Chad Mendes (1-1) took on former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez (1-0). The two men had an absolute war that went the distance. Both men were dropped and hurt in the fight and it was a classic brawl. Alvarez won by split decision and Mendes announced his retirement after the fight.
BKFC 41 was a massive success
In attendance for the event was combat sports superstar Conor McGregor. McGregor watched the final two fights and even had a face-off with Mike Perry following his win against Rockhold. McGregor stood in the ring with a BKFC belt around his shoulder.
The publicity alone from McGregor being in attendance and complimenting the promotion is huge for BKFC. President Dave Feldman was on the MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani today and he talked about how much of a success Saturday night was.
That said, he also said he doesn’t like doing the PPV model. Feldman said that with the star power they brought to that event, they needed to do PPV to afford the event. However, moving forward, he wants to make it free for the fans to watch.
With that, Feldman said that BKFC is “down the road” with two mainstream TV deals that would make the promotion accessible to the masses. He said he believes that they’ll have a TV deal done in the next couple of months. Overall, it’s a very exciting times for the promotion.