Even from the early vantage point, BKFC 6 stood out as the biggest card yet from the upstart Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
The card, which was topped by a sizzling grudge match between UFC veteran Artem Lobov and former boxing champ Paulie Malignaggi, and featured a slew of UFC veterans and MMA notables, generated quite a bit of buzz throughout the combat sports world, and showed all the early signs of a major success for the promotion.
According to BKFC President David Feldman, it was just that. The organization’s head honcho says the BKFC 6 card is trending to hit somewhere in the region of 200,000 pay-per-view buys — a number that would rank higher than some recent UFC pay-per-views and can only be called a massive win for a new promotion.
“We got our digital numbers right away,” Feldman told MMA Junkie. “In April, we did a certain amount, and in June, we did six times that digitally. It’s given us a gauge that we’re going to end up at the 200,000 line.”
In Feldman’s eyes, BKFC 6 demonstrated that bare knuckle fighting is an excellent meeting point for athletes from all combat sports.
“I think what it did is it showed this is truly a middle ground,” he said. “It’s not really boxing versus MMA. It’s a pretty good middle ground. Each and every one of these fighters have an equal chance of beating anybody. Most people didn’t think Artem had a chance at all.”
The card also proved that BKFC is rapidly picking up steam.
“A lot of the guys that said we’re a gimmick and won’t be around, well, one year later, we’re around and we’re more popular than ever, and we’re picking up steam,” Feldman said.
Are you surprised by the PPV estimate for BKFC 6?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 7/3/2019.