BKB David Tetreault Looks to Add Premium Talent to Roster

Bare Knuckle Boxing CEO David Tetreault is intent on having his promotion carve a sizable portion of the pie associated with one of the fastest growing combat sports in the world. Fresh off a show in Los Angeles that saw former boxing champion Victor Ortiz emerge victorious, but bloodied in his bare knuckle debut, BKB took the show to London for a card headlined by Fernando Vargas Jr. and Amado Vargas. Later this month, BKB heads back to the United States for a show in Miami.

On Thursday, the promotion signed the son of former heavyweight boxing champion Hasim Rahman, Sharif Rahman. The climb is real.

"Sharif has boxing in his blood and a 9-0 record to back it up," Tetreault said. "Signing a talented, unbeaten fighter with a name like Rahman is another massive statement for BKB. We can't wait to see him test that perfect record inside our trigon."

"I've carried this family name my whole career and I've never lost," Rahman said. "Bare knuckle is a new test, no gloves, no excuses, just pure skill and heart, and I'm bringing my undefeated record to BKB to prove I belong among the best in the trigon."

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The global claim is not marketing language. BKB branded this run "The Summer of BKB: A Gladiatorial World Tour" when it announced four international events on May 18, and it has hit three of them: Cardiff on June 27 for Lee Selby's debut, Los Angeles on July 18 at The Novo at LA Live, and London's O2 for the Vargas brothers. Miami closes the summer of events on Aug. 29. That followed BKB 54, "Mayhem in Manchester."

I attended the show in L.A. and while he wasn't the headliner, 23-year-old heavyweight Jesse Sparks stood out to me as the brightest young star on the card.

While I was in L.A., I spoke with former UFC light heavyweight Jimi Manuwa, he showed interest as did others from neighboring combat sports. The interest is there across the board, especially because the money available is getting fighter's attention.

Distribution runs on two continents through VICE TV and talkSPORT, and Tetreault told me in July that a Mexico expansion is underway through Zanfer. There's also another headed to Biloxi, Mississippi on October 23 that will be headlined former boxing champion Yuriorkis Gamboa.

The premium-talent claim has a paper trail too. Ortiz signed a multi-fight, multi-year deal in March as a former WBC welterweight champion at 33-7-3 with 25 knockouts, and he beat Dominic Salcido by five-round unanimous decision in his debut. He spoke with me about his process of signing with BKB.

Gamboa is a 2004 Olympic gold medalist and unified WBA and IBF featherweight champion at 30-5. Selby held the IBF featherweight title. Paulie Malignaggi and Alfredo Angulo have both come through. LT "Smash" Nelson is a two-division BKB world champion.

Tetreault's own background provides a peek into what his blueprint is for BKB. He spent more than a decade as a senior marketing executive at 20th Century Fox, then roughly seven years as chief business officer at Golden Boy under Oscar De La Hoya, where he helped build Ryan Garcia, then Triller.

He does not describe BKB the way rival promoters describe their companies. He told me he does not look at BKB as just another promotion like Matchroom, BKFC, Top Rank or Golden Boy, but as a sports team in the mold of Manchester United, the Dodgers or the Celtics.

An in-house media division and a Bally's-backed prospect series are both in development, and the Cardiff card's TikTok stream posted what a representative from the platform told me was the highest watch time of any sports content in history.

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