Will bare knuckle boxing surpass gloved boxing in popularity?

[RScarf1]

I attended a bare knuckle boxing event last night in Florida. It was promoted by BYB Extreme. The BYB stands for Backyard Brawls which is where these fights literally were before they got sanctioned. Several states in the U.S. now sanction bare knuckle boxing. Bare knuckle boxing came before gloved boxing, but now bare knuckle boxing is growing in popularity. BoxRec has the bare knuckle boxers and events on their website, but they do not rank bare knuckle boxers.

Some of these boxers came from gloved boxing. The bare knuckle boxer who won in the main event last night has a gloved boxing record of 6-12 and he was making his bare knuckle debut. Some of the bare knuckle boxers never did gloved boxing.
Austin Trout will be making his bare knuckle debut for BKFC (Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship) in about two weeks.
Former UFC/MMA fighter Ben Rothwell made his debut for BKFC last year, winning by KO in the first round. Right now, it seems that BKFC has the better overall talent compared to BYB Extreme.

It was an entertaining event last night. There was one women's fight and that was the best fight in my opinion. It went the distance (5 rounds) and it was a close decision. The ring is a triangle shape instead of a square like in gloved boxing or a circle like in BKFC. Therefore, boxers do not want to get stuck in the corner. BYB Extreme is having their next event in Dubai (city in United Arab Emirates) in March which will be the first bare knuckle boxing event in the Gulf region. I went to a BKFC event last year in Florida, so I have seen events from both. I think that if the corruption and lack of good matchups continues in gloved boxing, then bare knuckle boxing could eventually surpass gloved boxing. For now though, the money and talent are not there yet. Maybe if Austin Trout has success, other world-class boxers will follow.

[joshj909]

Too many cuts to the face and long term injuries to the hands will hold it back and it will lose momentum once the novelty has worn off for most people.

[RScarf1]

Too many cuts to the face and long term injuries to the hands will hold it back and it will lose momentum once the novelty has worn off for most people.

My dad said the same thing to me, that it is a novelty and there is too much blood. The cutmen really earn their money at bare knuckle events. Last night, the woman who lost was bleeding a lot, but she had such a good cutman that the fight wasn't stopped and it went the whole five rounds. I don't know if it is a novelty because a novelty is like a fad for a short period of time, but this is growing in popularity. The top two American bare knuckle companies are doing events in other countries. The events that I have been to were nearly sold out.

[gilgamesh]

I kinda have a hard time imagining Boxing in any form survives this Century without being abolished. I hope I'm wrong about that, but the way Society is these days. If they ever turn their attention to how "Barbaric" Boxing is. It's a wrap probably.

That goes Quadruple for Bareknuckle.

I personally enjoy it though. It definitely gets real violent, real fast. I honestly still can't believe it's come back the way it has. It was abolished throughout the entire 20th century, and it came back?

Feels like a unique time to be alive.

[HomicideHenry]

I think at some point in the future there will have to be a gloved champion compete in the bare knuckle arena and claim the bare knuckle title. One cannot quite claim to be the best boxer in the world gloves or no gloves unless they actually prove it. That's the only way I can see bare knuckle boxing getting the kind of respect and popularity that glove boxing has.

That being said since BoxRec does compile the records of kickboxers as well as gloved boxers I think they should expand their database to include bare knuckle boxers, although it must be noted that the rules are slightly different in the bare knuckle boxing arena because the emphasis is on aggression more than boxing skill or boxing technique which is why Paulie Malignaggi lost to Artem Lobov by decision.

[RScarf1]

I think at some point in the future there will have to be a gloved champion compete in the bare knuckle arena and claim the bare knuckle title. One cannot quite claim to be the best boxer in the world gloves or no gloves unless they actually prove it. That's the only way I can see bare knuckle boxing getting the kind of respect and popularity that glove boxing has.

That being said since BoxRec does compile the records of kickboxers as well as gloved boxers I think they should expand their database to include bare knuckle boxers, although it must be noted that the rules are slightly different in the bare knuckle boxing arena because the emphasis is on aggression more than boxing skill or boxing technique which is why Paulie Malignaggi lost to Artem Lobov by decision.

BoxRec does include bare knuckle boxers now. They just don't have rating lists for them to my knowledge. You can see a boxer's bare knuckle record and gloved record if they have one near the top of a boxer's page to the right of the record. Click either "Box-pro" for gloved or "BK-pro" for bare knuckle.

[Thomastearns]

...I think that if the corruption and lack of good matchups continues in gloved boxing, then bare knuckle boxing could eventually surpass gloved boxing...

No doubt.

Boxing is as rotten and corrupt as it can be and has only an outside resemblance to a sport, a resemblance that it's been milking for decades.

I don't hold Eddie Hearn responsible for all of this but it disappointing that for someone who offered such promise in his early efforts to get boxing back on the right track has now ended up himself mired in the same swamp that some were hoping he could help clear up.

Both boxing and politics would be better off if they could be somehow separated from the vast sums of money that fuel them.

As things stand, without any clear leadership, rules, or ethics, boxing continues to do as much harm to its future wellbeing as it possibly can.

It's not all bad though.

Boxing's self inflicted loss will also be the gain of other combat sports.

Many of the current stars quote the likes of Muhammad Ali, Mike Tyson, Ray Leonard, Roberto Duran, Manny Pacquiao etc as inspirations.

Who will tomorrow's fighters aspire to?

Tyson Fury or Conor McGregor?
Canelo Alvarez or Nate Diaz?
Anthony Joshua or Khabib Nurmagomedov?

It's not as obvious as it once was, is it?

[RScarf1]

I don't hold Eddie Hearn responsible for all of this but it disappointing that for someone who offered such promise in his early efforts to get boxing back on the right track has now ended up himself mired in the same swamp that some were hoping he could help clear up.

Amanda Serrano vs. Katie Taylor was really Jake Paul vs. Eddie Hearn. Who is more valuable to the sanctioning bodies? That is why Taylor won and not Serrano who deserved to win.

[Controversial]

I kinda have a hard time imagining Boxing in any form survives this Century without being abolished.

I agree, if boxing was invented today it wouldn’t be allowed. More and more knowledge of brain injuries and the affects blows to the head take, that coupled with more people being aware of the dangers and choosing not to do it

[Perseus]

I don't know about BKB but I am confident female boxing will eclipse male boxing in the next 2 or 3 years.
Not because of some woke bulllshit but because the so-called "men" literally want to spend years talking a big game on social media while steering clear of real challenges.

[gilgamesh]

I don't know about BKB but I am confident female boxing will eclipse male boxing in the next 2 or 3 years.
Not because of some woke bulllshit but because the so-called "men" literally want to spend years talking a big game on social media while steering clear of real challenges.

Women's Boxing will never have the talent pool to surpass Men's Boxing, but I get your point.

[Evander]

Bare knuckle is brutal merely based off the impact a bare fist has on the face.
Might sound strange coming from a boxing fan but as much as I like to watch a good tear up, it's not about disfiguring or ruining a persons life, mostly it's about a physical and mental skill combined with a ring IQ in the long term.
Not my cup of tea.

[margaret thatcher]

lol no chance women's boxing surpasses men's in a couple years, if it started getting close to that the fights would get harder to make anyway. men can be bigger divas because they have way more money on the line and they are bigger money alternatives, because it's far more lucrative than women's boxing

same reason why so many of the little guys are matched tough more quickly, they dont have as much on the line to dick around with, yet strawweight boxing has never taken over heavyweight boxing........and even the straweights get more kos than the women

men's sports are more popular even when the talent pool is similar in numbers, yet the talent pool in male boxing is still vastly greater than womens, far more elite fighters, far more kos, far more memorable fights, in part because there's so much more out there - not gonna change in a couple years. lots of good men's matchups still get made anyway, and there have always been fights that dont happen or take too long being made.

[Perseus]

I don't know about BKB but I am confident female boxing will eclipse male boxing in the next 2 or 3 years.
Not because of some woke bulllshit but because the so-called "men" literally want to spend years talking a big game on social media while steering clear of real challenges.

Women's Boxing will never have the talent pool to surpass Men's Boxing, but I get your point.

A talent pool is not needed to surpass social media warriors who don't get in the ring.

[gilgamesh]

I don't know about BKB but I am confident female boxing will eclipse male boxing in the next 2 or 3 years.
Not because of some woke bulllshit but because the so-called "men" literally want to spend years talking a big game on social media while steering clear of real challenges.

Women's Boxing will never have the talent pool to surpass Men's Boxing, but I get your point.

A talent pool is not needed to surpass social media warriors who don't get in the ring.

It is when you're only describing a small percentage of the Big name fighters.

[margaret thatcher]

there are lots of good men's fights that have happened, and they can actually ko each other regularly

simping aint easy though , i know. i suppose for some people, if they can't get spence-crawford, the next best thing is ebonie bridges

[AngryGoon38]

I don't like Bare Knuckle Boxing.

I don't even like MMA very much.

I Wish that Kickboxing would Really come back.
Like it was during the Golden Age of it's Prime Fruition. 1970's-1980's-Early 1990's.
It'd be So interesting to see some certain established Solid level Pro-Boxers try it as well.
If Randy Tex Cobb switched from Boxing to Kickboxing, then why not others in this modern era..?
MMA fighters could get in on it as well.

[Noxy]

No

[Noxy]

I don't know about BKB but I am confident female boxing will eclipse male boxing in the next 2 or 3 years.
Not because of some woke bulllshit but because the so-called "men" literally want to spend years talking a big game on social media while steering clear of real challenges.

Indeed, so much hot air around the sport these days. It’s boring.

[leejonesjnr]

No

[p4p1]

Maybe.
I think a deicding factor going forward for combat sports for their popularity are, the ease of following the sport and knowing who the champions and top contenders are, entertainment value, marketing and how good the production of a PPV show is.
Boxing sucks in a few of those categories so it wouldn't be surprising to see it surpass boxing. It would still need a couple of top boxers to make the transition to help its legitimacy, but it isn't that hard to see it happening.

[Noxy]

It's too brutal. Boxing has a better "look".