BKFC President David Feldman has met with UFC CEO Dana White, hinting at potential future collaborations, as the bare-knuckle fighting organization continues to expand, including sanctioning pushes in California and Nevada, and hosting events globally.
BKFC’s main man, David Feldman, recently had a sit-down with UFC’s Dana White. He’s keeping the details hush-hush, but it seems he’s found a new ally in the fight game.
Post BKFC 57, Feldman spoke about a snap that had him and White in the same frame. BKFC’s been on a growth spurt lately, making moves in California and Nevada.
California’s given the green light to bare-knuckle fighting. BKFC’s got KnuckleMania IV lined up for LA on April 27.
Feldman’s chat with White? “It was more of just creating an ally,” he shared with MMA Fighting. “That’s really all I have to say. It was great meeting, he’s a great guy. He’s doing his thing with UFC, and we’re going to do our thing with BKFC. We’re going to be the biggest combat sport on the planet.”
Feldman doesn’t see UFC as a rival. Why? Bare-knuckle fighting ain’t MMA. BKFC’s one of the few big fight promoters regularly selling tickets. Over 8,000 were sold in Utah for BKFC 56 last December.
Doing business with UFC? Feldman’s open to it. Especially if it means cross-promotion deals. UFC fighters in BKFC and vice versa. BKFC’s done it before. Bellator MMA let Michael “Venom” Page throw down in a bare-knuckle fight against Mike Perry.
“We want to grow our sport,” Feldman stated. “We want to make our sport the biggest it can be. If that means teaming up with other promotions, we have nothing against doing anything like that, because we think that it’s just going to make the sport grow and the company grow and the business grow. So anything that’s going to make it grow, we’re down for it.”
Feldman also spilled about a recent meet-up with RIZIN president Nobuyuki Sakakibara. And he welcomed dignitaries from Abu Dhabi to the BKFC 57 card. It’s all part of BKFC’s global expansion plans. They’ve already held events in places like Thailand and the U.K.
“We had people from all over the world in attendance tonight,” Feldman said. “They all loved it, and we’re going to expand everywhere.”