Broadcast Sport speaks to BKFC founder and president David Feldman about its plans after a record UK show
15,894 people piled into the Manchester AO Arena for BKFC 94 earlier this month, watching as British fighter Darren Till defeated Yoel Romero in only his second fight in the bare-knuckle boxing format.
For promoter BKFC’s founder and president David Feldman, pictured above on the right, this is the latest reason why the UK is one of his target markets for the growing sport. Speaking to Broadcast Sport, he revealed, “We’re focusing on the United States, and then the UK number two and Australia number three. That’s the one, two, three punch, if you will.
“We want to develop in the other countries too, but I think that UK could be number two, if not even the number one market, and Australia is right behind because it’s the same type of mentality, and the people get it.”
Of course, in-person attendances can’t be everything for the sport. The event in Manchester was shown by DAZN, and the broadcaster has been a key partner for BKFC, Feldman said, but he is still open to other distribution plans, “DAZN has been a great partner to us, and they’re going to continue to be a great partner.
“A lot of people are knocking on our doors now. We have a small amount of events that are committed to DAZN, and then we definitely have room for other broadcasters. We’re going to listen to all the different offers out there because we want to do what’s best for BKFC. That doesn’t mean money. That means who’s going to get the most eyeballs, and the right eyeballs, on BKFC so the sport can grow.”
This desire to grow its audience before focusing on pure revenues could even mean putting events out for free on social platforms, or expanding its D2C platform, the BKFC app. Feldman explained, “Social media platforms are big to go after now. You can monetise on there and you can get a lot of viewership on there. You can capitalise on the sponsor revenue and the ad revenue.
“Everything has changed. Before it was either a TV company paid you to come on or you did pay-per-view. Now there’s a lot of different options out there in the world, and I think we’re going to take advantage of all them.”
He added on the app, “That’s gaining a lot of subscriptions. It could be the ‘be all end all’ at the end of the day because of the way the subscriptions are going. But I think to get more people to notice what we’re doing, the social media platforms or YouTube are really unlimited in viewership and that’s going to really be the key to taking us over the edge.”
This doesn’t mean that BKFC will go as far as traditional boxing has in putting content creators with little fighting experience in to bouts, despite its success as a format, but Feldman does see the benefits of that approach. “We could do two big YouTube fighters, if they were fighters. We don’t want to put two guys that have never fought before inside the bare knuckle ring. That’s dangerous. We wouldn’t do that.
“If they’re an experienced fighter and they want to get inside the ring, then it’s one thing, but not the gimmicky stuff that they’re doing with YouTube fighters. It’s great for them. I’m not saying it’s great for the sport of boxing, but, for what they’re doing, they’re doing a hell of a job at it because they have packed arenas and they’ve got unbelievable viewership. When that’s happening, how can you it talk down, right?”
For now, Feldman believes it is BKFC’s time to stand out in a crowded field of fight sports, thanks to the speed of bare-knuckle boxing’s format: “These days, everybody wants to look at their phone and see things real fast. We give them something fast. We are built for today’s society, 100%.
“I tried to get this legal for nine years and get it over the bridge. Before the nine years the time wasn’t right for it. Now this is the society that we need.”
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