HISTORY
The history of underground and bare knuckle fighting. From ancient traditions to modern promotions, trace the evolution of combat sports.
HOW CALCIO STORICO SURVIVED 500 YEARS
Every June, in the Piazza Santa Croce in Florence, Italy, something happens that should not exist. Twenty-seven men in Renaissance-era costumes enter...
DADA 5000: THE MAN WHO ALMOST DIED FIGHTING KIMBO
There are fighters who are defined by their victories. There are fighters who are defined by their defeats. And then there is Dhafir Harris -- Dada...
THE DAWG FIGHT DOCUMENTARY: MIAMI'S UNDERGROUND FIGHTING SCENE
In 2015, a documentary arrived that did something rare in the world of underground fighting: it told the truth. Not the sanitized truth that...
DEATHS AND SERIOUS INJURIES IN UNDERGROUND FIGHTING: A HISTORY
This article exists because people have been hurt. People have died. And the history of underground fighting cannot be told honestly without...
THE EAST BAY RATS: OAKLAND'S 30-YEAR FIGHT NIGHT TRADITION
In a city that has reinvented itself a dozen times over -- from industrial powerhouse to Black Panther stronghold to tech overflow to whatever...
THE FELONY FIGHTS STORY: THE MOST CONTROVERSIAL FIGHT SERIES EVER MADE
Some things are made to provoke. Felony Fights was made to provoke. The DVD series -- five volumes released in 2005 and 2006 -- featured convicted...
THE HISTORY OF BACKYARD FIGHTING IN AMERICA: FROM KIMBO SLICE TO STREETBEEFS
American backyard fighting has a history older than America itself. Bare-knuckle prizefighting in the colonies predated the Revolution. Frontier...
THE HISTORY OF BARE KNUCKLE BOXING: FROM 1719 TO THE MODERN REVIVAL
For 300 years, bare-knuckle boxing has existed in some form -- celebrated, outlawed, forgotten, and now revived. It is the oldest form of organized...
HISTORY OF SLAP FIGHTING: FROM RUSSIAN CONTESTS TO DANA WHITE
Slap fighting's journey from obscure Russian strongman sideshow to Dana White's television spectacle is one of the strangest stories in combat sports...
HOW YOUTUBE CREATED THE UNDERGROUND FIGHTING INDUSTRY
The underground fighting industry was not born in a gym, a promoter's office, or an athletic commission hearing room. It was born on a video-sharing...
THE HYPE CREW: WHO REALLY RUNS KING OF THE STREETS?
Nobody knows who they are. That is not a figure of speech or a marketing conceit -- it is a statement of operational fact. The Hype Crew, the...
THE KIMBO SLICE STORY: FROM MIAMI STREETS TO THE UFC
Before there were algorithms, before there were content creators, before the word "viral" meant anything outside of a biology textbook, there was a...
CONOR MCGREGOR'S BKFC INVESTMENT: THE COMPLETE TIMELINE
On April 17, 2024, the bare knuckle fighting world changed. Conor McGregor -- the biggest name in combat sports history, the UFC's first simultaneous...
THE PANDEMIC'S ROLE IN GROWING BACKYARD FIGHTING
In March 2020, the world stopped. Governments issued lockdown orders. Businesses closed. Gyms shuttered their doors. Professional sports went dark....
THE RISE AND FALL OF THE UNDERGROUND COMBAT LEAGUE: NYC'S LEGENDARY UCL
There is a particular kind of fighting organization that can only exist in the space created by prohibition. The Underground Combat League was that...
FROM STREET FIGHTS TO PPV: THE BUSINESS OF UNDERGROUND FIGHTING
There was a time when underground fighting had no business model. Fights happened because people wanted to fight. Someone filmed it. Someone uploaded...
HOW STREETBEEFS WENT FROM SETTLING BEEFS TO 4 MILLION SUBSCRIBERS
The idea was simple, and it was born from frustration. Chris Wilmore -- known to the internet as Scarface, for the scar running across his face from...
HOW A ST. PETERSBURG FIGHT CLUB BECAME GLOBAL: THE STRELKA STORY
In 2011, a group of men set up a makeshift ring filled with sand in an open space somewhere in St. Petersburg, Russia. Two fighters stepped in....
THE TECHNOLOGY BEHIND UNDERGROUND FIGHTING
Underground fighting has always existed. What has changed, repeatedly and dramatically, is the technology used to record it, distribute it, and...
THE COMPLETE TIMELINE OF UNDERGROUND FIGHTING: FROM ANCIENT COMBAT TO YOUTUBE
Underground fighting is not a modern invention. Long before cameras, commissions, and pay-per-view, human beings settled disputes, tested their...
WOMEN IN UNDERGROUND FIGHTING: BREAKING INTO THE SCENE
The history of underground fighting is overwhelmingly male. The fighters are men. The organizers are men. The audiences are predominantly men. The...