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By Michael Gallagher
Sports Content Coordinator
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For years, prize fighting consisted of mostly boxing with some low-level mixed martial arts sprinkled in.
But with the success of the inaugural season of “The Ultimate Fighter,” the UFC burst onto the scene in a big way and became the fastest-growing sport in the U.S.
Now, fight fans have their pick of what they want to consume with boxing, MMA, nationally televised Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and wrestling tournaments, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, and Dana White’s Power Slap.
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But there’s a new player at the table: Bare Knuckle Boxing (BKB).
Many are familiar with BKFC because of the involvement and publicity from minority owner, UFC legend Conor McGregor, but Bare Knuckle Boxing is emerging as growing force.
BKB CEO David Tetreault, who’s worked alongside some of the sport’s all-time greats like Oscar De La Hoya, recently spoke with Newsweek about some of the cutting-edge things the promotion is currently working on as it grows.
One of BKB’s top objectives is to build a strong and loyal following among the younger demographic (ages 18-25), which is why the company is using TikTok, the social media platform they spend arguably the most amount of time on, to its advantage.
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Tetreault says BKB, which is home to some of the top fighters in the country like Lee Selby, Paulie Malignaggi, and Victor Ortiz, has already streamed three of its prelim fights on TikTok (the main cards are aired on the Vice network), and each one has outdone the previous ones.
“We're one of you know a few companies that are in partnership with [TikTok],” he said. “Each time we've done it, we continue to break records. Our first go at it, June 27th, we ended up having the highest watch time in the history of any sport that ever took place on the TikTok platform, with watch time above four minutes. Then we beat that watch time in LA, and then we surpassed it once again in London.
“We do feel that we're kind of on the bleeding edge with [TikTok] and right now, really the only companies that are at the table with this are ESPN, Fox (they did a lot of stuff with them during the World Cup and FIFA), Red Bull with their fighting series, and then most recently MVP and Jake Paul. So you know we're there with four or five companies that are really doing this.”
Why is BKB Targeting Gen Z and Millennials?
As Tetreault puts it — their viewing habits are trending away from traditional boxing, but they still crave the action and adrenaline spike they get from combat sports.
“What we found in a lot of our analytics — even down to the Gen-Alphas — is that they love the fast pace,” Tetreault said. “They appreciate the way in which you know there's action constantly. The fact that there are no gloves on it really evokes a visceral following and acknowledgement of kind of this is kind of the human spirit at its very base level. So it attracts males and females, and it's just it's growing incredibly well.”
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What Does the Future Hold for Bare Knuckle Boxing?
Based on the current viewership (Vice broadcasts average 380,000 views and climbing), the surging numbers the company is already doing on social media (the company says it has five times the retention rate of traditional boxing on social), and a number of high-profile current and yet-to-be announced signings, Tetreault believes BKB is positioning itself to potentially become a household staple much like the UFC in the not-too-distant future.
“I see it's a fast-growing sport,” he added. “I see the opportunity to mainstream it. There's still work that we have to do to get it into the full mainstream. At some point, we do envision those watch parties on a Saturday night where people are coming into other people's homes and they're really celebrating this.”
Part of that growth, Tetreault says, could lead to a fighter-share agreement with other top promotions, or possibly BKB being featured as an appetizer event after weigh ins for “mega fight cards” that feature top boxers like Tyson Fury or Anthony Joshua.
He also teased some potentially big news on the horizon regarding some new talent joining the promotion.
Fernando Vargas Jr. (17-1, 15 KOs) and Amado Vargas (13-0, 6 KOs) — the sons of legendary boxer Fernando Vargas Sr. — recently joined the company. Joseph “JoJo” Diaz (34-10-1, 15 KOs) and Yuriorkis Gamboa (30-6, 18 KOs) have already been announced, and some other familiar names could be next.
“We want great strikers that come out of the UFC or PFL or any of those disciplines, as well as some of these top-level younger boxers to come and give a shot at it,” Tetreault added. “And I can tell you that there's going to be some great announcements of some really major signings in the next few weeks.”
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