NEWS
Latest news from the underground and bare knuckle fighting world. Event announcements, fighter updates, organization changes, and more.
ALEX TERRIBLE AT TOP DOG 37: WHEN METAL MEETS BARE KNUCKLE
Combat sports and heavy metal have always been neighbors. They share a vocabulary of violence, a worship of intensity, and a fan base that overlaps...
BKFC'S UK EXPANSION: ACQUIRING BFBA AND GOING GLOBAL
Bare-knuckle boxing was born in England. James Figg claimed the first championship in 1719. Jack Broughton wrote the first rules in 1743. The London...
HOW CONOR MCGREGOR'S BKFC OWNERSHIP IS CHANGING BARE KNUCKLE FIGHTING FOREVER
In April 2024, Conor McGregor did something that altered the trajectory of bare knuckle fighting more decisively than any single punch thrown in a...
HOW FOOTBALL HOOLIGANS BUILT EUROPE'S UNDERGROUND FIGHT SCENE
The connection between European football hooliganism and underground fighting is not metaphorical. It is structural. The organizations, the networks,...
HOW COVID-19 FUELED THE UNDERGROUND FIGHTING EXPLOSION
When the world shut down in March 2020, professional combat sports shut down with it. The UFC postponed three consecutive events before retreating to...
THE RISE OF WOMEN'S BARE KNUCKLE FIGHTING: HOW BKFC BUILT A DIVISION FROM SCRATCH
There was no roadmap. When the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship staged its first sanctioned women's bout in 2018, the concept of women fighting...
HOW STREETBEEFS REACHED 4 MILLION YOUTUBE SUBSCRIBERS
On a YouTube platform where fight channels routinely die, get demonetized, or stall at five figures, Streetbeefs has 4.39 million subscribers. More...
HOW TELEGRAM AND ENCRYPTED APPS POWER UNDERGROUND FIGHTING
YouTube built the audience. Telegram runs the operation.
HOW TOP DOG FC RODE THE PANDEMIC TO BECOME RUSSIA'S BIGGEST BARE KNUCKLE PROMOTION
Every combat sports promotion has an origin story. The UFC started with an argument about which martial art was best. BKFC started with a boxing...
HOW UNDERGROUND FIGHTING ORGANIZATIONS MAKE MONEY: THE COMPLETE BUSINESS MODEL
Underground fighting is a business. That statement surprises people who imagine the scene as purely spontaneous -- guys settling grudges in backyards...
DEATHS AND SERIOUS INJURIES IN UNDERGROUND FIGHTING: WHAT WE KNOW
Every underground fighting organization exists under the same shadow: the possibility that someone will die. It has not happened often enough to shut...
THE LEGAL STATUS OF UNDERGROUND FIGHTING ACROSS COUNTRIES: A COMPLETE GUIDE
The legality of underground fighting is not a yes-or-no question. It is a spectrum that varies by country, by state, by the specific format of the...
THE GROWING ROLE OF WOMEN IN UNDERGROUND AND BARE KNUCKLE FIGHTING
For most of its history, underground fighting was an exclusively male domain. The backyard brawls, the parking lot scraps, the concrete fights in...
HOW THE YOUTUBE ALGORITHM BUILT THE UNDERGROUND FIGHTING INDUSTRY
Every industry has a creation myth. Silicon Valley has the garage. Hollywood has the nickelodeon. The underground fighting industry has a...