Jason Knight is now 1-1 in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship as he TKO’d Artem Lobov at BKFC 9 over the weekend.
It was a very good performance for Knight, who predicted he would finish Lobov. But he believes, had he not hurt his hand, the knockout would have come a lot sooner.
“I was very happy with my performance. The only thing that sucked was I hurt my right hand at the end of the second round. I feel like I could have fought a lot better had it not been hurt,” Knight told BJPENN.com. “It just made me a little more hesitant to throw it. I barely got hit at all, but I didn’t throw as much as I wanted to. But, had I not hurt my hand, I could have finished him earlier.”
With the win, Knight and Lobov are now 1-1 against each other and a trilogy makes sense. Yet the man affectionately knowns as “Hick Diaz” isn’t sure the SBG Ireland product would want to fight him again, as he believes the same result would happen.
“That is 100% up to Artem. If he wants to have a trilogy I am more than welcome to fight for the third time. I feel like I beat him the first time, I know I beat him the second time, and if we fight a third time I’d beat him,” he explained. “I fought the way I am supposed to and am way more skilled than him. So, I don’t see Artem fighting again, but if he does, I’m happy to do that.”
With a bare-knuckle win in the books, Knight has found a new love and passion for the sport, and will continue to fight for BKFC. He has no interest in trying to get back into the UFC or going to another MMA promotion.
“I’m going to stay in bare-knuckle. This gets me excited and wanting to train. If you don’t have the drive to do it, if you don’t love it, you won’t be able to give it your best. Look, I still love MMA, don’t get me wrong,” he explained. “But, there were certain times I couldn’t stand going to the gym, or worry about my neck hurting. With this, training is easier, it is fun and I don’t have to worry about someone taking me down and laying on me. And, as far as bare-knuckle goes, I’m at the top of the food chain. If I fought my ass off to get back to the UFC, I’d be at the bottom of the totem pole.”
Now that Jason Knight is committed to BKFC, he believes his next opponent will be Jim Alers if Lobov doesn’t want the trilogy. Yet he also hopes he can scrap with fellow UFC vet and current BKFC lightweight champ Johnny Bedford soon as he wants to shut him up.
“They are talking about me fighting Jim Alers which I’d be down for. Then I really want to fight Johnny Bedford. Just because he thinks he is all this because he is 5-0 in BKFC, but he has fought five scrubs, he has fought five nobodies. I believe I will put him to sleep, and that is what I want to do,” Knight said. “I want to fight Johnny Bedford and shut his cocky little mouth. Honestly, it has nothing to do with the money because he is not a money fight, no one is super excited to watch him fight, I would love to shut him up.”
Who do you think Jason Knight should fight next in BKFC?
This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 11/20/2019.