I took BKFC from near bankruptcy to a Fenway Park show and a $400M valuation, I won’t rest until it’s as known as UFC

BKFC has gone from being a fringe and frowned-upon promotion to the cusp of mainstream acceptance. The sheer brutality of bare-knuckle boxing, coupled with it initially being an unregulated sport, saw many turn their noses up at it. Bare-knuckle boxing was once an extremly frowned-upon sport Credit: BKFC The sheer brutality of the sport has been blasted by combat sports critics Credit: BKFC The devastating and at times viral damage received by fighters made it an easy target for critics of combat sports and those involved in the fight game. Global perceptions, however, have changed in recent years, and there is growing acceptance of the laceration-heavy martial art. Sign up for the Sport newsletter Thank you! BKFC has been leading the charge for the sport for the best part of the last decade and has helped it make serious inroads into the mainstream. And just eight years after hosting their first show in front of just shy of 2000 people in the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center in Wyoming, they’re set to pack out Fenway Park – the iconic home of the Boston Red Sox – on Saturday night. Former boxer Dave Feldman has been steering the BKFC ship for the last eight years, playing a pivotal role in their success. Feldman always had big visions for the promotion, but even he couldn’t have contemplated staging fights on the hallowed Fenway grounds. In an exclusive interview with SunSport, he said: “It’s unreal. It’s been a tough journey. “I’m actually doing a lot of these business meetings this week and we’re finishing up a very, very nice round of investment. Most read in Sport SUN VEGAS WELCOME OFFER: GET UP TO £100 BONUS Perceptions of the sport have changed drastically in recent years Credit: REX “And what I’m telling everybody is we spent the first eight years building a foundation. “Now we’re ready to grow – like really grow. “And at the beginning of that growth is Fenway Park on August 29th. “It’s amazing to even being mentioned the same breath as Fenway Park, let alone do a show and having our ring on home plate. “It’s gonna be an amazing, amazing event.” It’s not all been sunshine and rainbows for the promotion, which has twice flirted with bankruptcy. Feldman experienced rejections galore from athletic commissions in his bid to have fights sanctioned and multiple knockbacks in his bid to secure a TV deal. Those struggles seem like a distant memory now that the sport is legal in over 30 states and BKFC, which has a £250MILLION ($400MILLION) valuation, has lucrative broadcast deals with DAZN and Fox. Dave Feldman has been at the BKFC helm for the last eight years and spearheaded it’s rapid growth Credit: DAVE FELDMAN / BKFC The promotion will host a historic event at Fenway Park this wekeend Credit: BKFC But the repeated knockbacks almost led Feldman and Co to call it quits. He said: “The growth has just been phenomenal and the following has been amazing. “The support has been on another level, but [we’ve] just got to keep pushing forward. “There’s been so many times when we could have stopped, when we could have quit. “We could have turned around and said, ‘Look, man, we don’t have this anymore.’ But we, we figured it out. “We figured out ways to keep this thing going, and now we’re in a great position. “And I’m very, very excited for what’s to come with BKFC.” Saturday night’s Fenway Park punch-ups, which will be topped by a featherweight title scrap between Kai Stewart and Boston’s own Harry Gigliotti, are undoubtedly a real pinch-me moment for Feldman. But the historic and coming-of-age event won’t be a catalyst for him to sit back and smell the roses. He’ll only do that when BKFC becomes an everyday conversation subject in barber shops and He said: “[I’ll be happy] when everybody I talk to knows what BKFC is like, everybody you talk to knows what UFC is. “When people know what BKFC is, which, believe me, is increasing a lot now. “Before it was like, ‘Bare knuckle.’ And they’re like, ‘ What is that?’ And now they’re like, ‘Oh yeah, I heard of that. I saw that, I read about that.’ “So when everybody knows what bare-knuckle is; and really, we’re not struggling to keep the lights on. “We’re struggling to just to grow more. I think that’s when we’ll be at a point where, you know, we quote-unquote ‘made it.'” A featherweight showdown between champion Kai Stewart and Harry Gigliotti tops the stacked BKFC 92 bill Credit: BKFC Comment now