Home Boxing News The Gloves are Off! An Introduction to Bare Knuckle Boxing

The Gloves are Off! An Introduction to Bare Knuckle Boxing

Bare Knuckle Boxing, once the confines of Smokey back rooms of run down pubs with a smattering of villains betting huge amounts of dirty money on the result of a fight, or travellers going toe to toe to work out disputes  by un-gloved pugilism, with no rounds, barely any rules and almost certainly no medics or any real kind of medical care but times have changed!

Bare Knuckle Boxing is now huge all over the world but the UK firmly leads the way with the world’s largest BKB promoter UBBAD with everything and more than you would expect in professional boxing, just without the gloves.

From top medics and medical care, to swanky five star venues, broadcast live worldwide on Pay per View TV, even with their own dedicated TV host and commentator. Gone are the days of back room brawls, with no rules or rounds, gone are the days of fighting until one man gave up or was unconscious BKB is now a professional, safe and well ran sport within UBBAD with the fighters moving out of pits and bales and into the ring, yes that right a boxing ring!

In addition safety is always first on the agenda with UBBAD’s very own highly skilled medics led by the UBBAD chief medical officer Bill Ellis who is very well qualified for the role having spent a number of years in war zones all over the world as an army medic and who specialises is head trauma.

The fighters themselves, they have boxing credentials like you wouldn’t believe, for example Dave Radford who not only fought but went the distance with the great Roberto Doran, we also have what is termed as ‘The New Breed’ of Bare Knuckle Boxers coming through and making a name for themselves, people such as ex commonwealth champion Kevin Bennet, ex Pro Martin Conception and the list goes on with former English Light Heavyweight Champion Travis Dickinson making his debut in January. These are tough hard men, but they train like professional athletes, and they are professional athletes with very similar fight camps leading up to a bout as you would see in professional boxing.

The British, Transatlantic and World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council Heavyweight Champion, Michael ‘The Real Deal’ Ferry comes from a boxing background and a boxing family a fought in both the ABA’s and Unlicensed or as some call it Semi-Pro with great success but when the gloves come off the British home-grown talent of 25 year old Michael Ferry is something to behold. Never before have I seen a heavyweight with the perfect combination of immense power, and unusually for a Heavyweight lightning speed, he moves like a featherweight but lone behold anyone that gets in his way in the ring. Ferry took the title and lifted the British Championship high into the air with a huge smile after winning the bout in an incredible eight seconds into the very first round, against Dover’s Craig Amer and went on to defeat American Corey Williams for the Transatlantic Strap and only a few weeks ago defeated, ‘The Killer’, Stevan Miller to make history in winning the first ever fully sanctioned Bare Knuckle Boxing title in the UK when he lifted the World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council belt.

The North East does seem to be a hotbed of talent with Michael being joined in the top ranks of BKB with the number one ranked light heavyweight and BKB legend James ‘Gypsy Boy’ McCrory who along with Yorkshires Dave ‘The Beast’ Radford are considered to be two of the founding fathers of BKB in the UK, and the number two ranked Heavyweight Billy ‘Bang Bang’ Hawthorn who sits just one step behind friend and training partner Ferry.

The rankings are updated monthly by the World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council (WBKBC) who are the worldwide sanctioning body for Bare Knuckle Boxing, since conception its always had a clear vision and that is to make sure fighter are ‘Safe’, Well Paid’ and that both matches and fights are fair. The WBKBC also have an ethos and belief that ‘A Fighter shouldn’t have to pay to fight, they should be paid’ and with this in mind membership of The WBKBC is 100% free. Different to what you may think the WBKBC is made up from people from all walks of life and the committee includes Businessmen, Top Medics, Successful Authors, TV & Radio Show hosts and councillors to name but a few, but they all have one thing in common no matter what walk of life that they come from they are all each and every one of the Bare Knuckle Boxing experts who live and breathe the sport.

The stars of BKB are becoming household names as the sport pushes its way to the forefront and these fighters are becoming autograph signing stars, people such as Dave Radford, James McCrory, Michael Ferry, Craig Amer, Scott Midgely, and Billy Hawthorn regularly stopped in the street for an autograph or a cheeky selfie!

So, what’s so good about BKB if you’ve never seen it? Well I will never forget my very first experience, I was invited to a UBBAD BKB show, a lifetime boxing fan I wasn’t sure if I would like what I found when I got there, but boy was I wrong! I became instantly addicted the fights are so pure, so raw, it’s like stepping back in time to our forefathers, back the days before the Marquis of Queensbury Rules.

The atmosphere? Well electric is an understatement and the fans, the fans are really something else, the degree of friendship and camaraderie is like nothing I have ever seen, far far better than gloved boxing fans, be it ABA’s, Unlicensed or Pro’s you won’t ever find a sport where the fans are so friendly, so respectful and get so excited during bouts. This is the only sport that I have ever seen in my lifetime where the fans actually become close friends with the stars of the sport.

The shows are put on with no expense being spared, in football stadiums and stalely home hotels as well as top fight venues. In May of this year UBBAD put on an amazing show with the third and final fight of two BKB legends. This was the fight that wanted to see Dave ‘The Beast’ Radford vs James ‘Gypsy Boy’ McCrory at ‘Colwick Hall’ in Nottingham which is a Stately Home hotel set in its own amazing grounds positioned on the side of a river. With the fans suited and booted and the Ladies in cocktail dresses, the fans which included Police Officers, Councillors and a good smattering of the rich and famous were very much at home in this amazing setting, and the price? Well cheaper than your average Pro Boxing show.

Fully supported by its own online TV channel UBBAD TV www.bbadtv.com , UBBAD is bringing BKB into a modern era. BBAD TV features interviews, fight footage and even radio interviews with all of the fighters, and the content is 100% exclusive.

The Origins of BKB

Men doubtless belabouring each other with their fists back in East Africa when homo more or less sapiens emerged as a force to be reckoned with. The first evidence of boxing as a sport dates from around 1500BC in Crete. The Greeks introduced it into the Olympic Games in the 7th century BC, later combining it with wrestling, and it became an established part of military training in ancient Greece. Initially, soft leather thongs were used to protect the knuckles. Hardened leather later transformed this protection into an offensive weapon – albeit not as offensive as the metal-studded version with which wealthy Greeks and Romans obliged their specially trained slaves to fight, often to the death. Bare-knuckle fights were the norm in Britain from the first recorded fight in 1681, between a servant of the Duke of Albemarle and a butcher. There were initially no rules even hitting an opponent when he was down being permitted. That changed in the mid-18th century, when Jack Broughton, the reigning champion, drew up some basic regulations ‘The London Prize fighting Rules’ and things became a lot more civilised and crucially safer.

The regulations were first revised in 1839, but then dramatically changed in 1867 with the Queensberry rules. Boxing, both professional and amateur, is nowadays tightly controlled but can still be a dangerous sport, in particular in regard to brain injuries, boxing as most people know it is still governed using something called ‘The Marquis of Queensbury Rules’ and these set of rules from a more than a century ago categorically state that a boxer must wear gloves.

Now what is the reason for this? Yes, on first hearing this due to the fact that a boxing glove is basically a glorified pad that covers a fist I can forgive you for thinking ‘of course, it’s for safety’ but I can tell you that you are wrong, as crazy as it may seem, so why gloves, well gloves were introduced to make competitions bloodier and briefer. Gloves distribute a blow, and they also add weight to a punch, making it more destructive, The Marquis’s of Queensberry rules took off not because society viewed the new sport as more civilized than the old, but because fights conducted under the new guidelines attracted more spectators and the reason for this? Audiences wanted to see repeated blows to the head and dramatic knockouts and that’s just what they got after the introduction of gloves, these were only ever made as recommendations, even though they were accepted by the powers that be legally Bare Knuckle Boxing was never outlawed or made illegal in the UK. 

 Is BKB Legal in the UK?

Yes, in a word BKB is 100 percent legal in the UK, and opposed to what many think was never made illegal as described above. In the same way that a gloved boxing promoter or a promoter of MMA or any other combat sport for that matter must apply for a licence to stage an event then a BKB promoter must do exactly the same thing in the UK.

 Is BKB Safe?

It has been widely published that it’s medically proven that Bare Knuckle Boxing is a safer sport that gloved boxing long tern for a fighter. Short term damage is increased with more instances of things like broken hand, broken jaws and such like but the long term effects such a brain damage causing pugilistic dementia and Parkinson’s and such like are greatly reduced.

This may sound crazy but Bare Knuckle fighters must pick their shots wisely and not as many head shots are thrown as opposed to gloved boxing as a hard head shot may well knockout your opponent but equally it can break your own hand, that combined with the spread of force of the blow to the head being smaller in volume to that of a glove that this causes significantly reduced amounts of instances of the brain being ‘wobbled’ in the skull which is the cause of pugilistic dementia.

Are there any rules?

The rules of BKB can somewhat differ between promoters but the official rules as set down by the sanctioning body for the sport ‘The World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council’ www.wbkbc.com stick to much the same rules at used by the British Board of Boxing Control who are the body that govern professional boxing in the UK, which a couple of distinct differences. Obviously the fighters do not wear gloves, they are free to fight either totally Bare Knuckle, or can wear hand wraps or bandages which are always checked prior to a bout by the referee. The main reasons that a fighter may wrap tier hands are to protect from broken hands which can occur often in BKB and for support of the wrists.

Bouts are fought over three, two minute rounds with the exception of title fights which are fought over five, two minute rounds. A fighter is given a twenty count as opposed to a ten within gloved boxing and crucially a fighter may at any time drop to one knew during a bout and take a twenty count, this is to a maximum of twice in any one round and three times throughout a bout.

 A year in BKB 2015

UBBAD is pushing very had to bring the sport that we love to the mainstream so that everyone can see the sport for what it really is, with a number of huge shows this year held in stately home hotels such as Colwick Hall in Nottingham its been a growth year for the sport the likes of which have never been seen. The year started off with a huge show held at the ever popular fight venue in Newcastle upon Tyne, The NE6 suite. The ‘Legends will be Made’ in February was huge with hometown boy Michael ‘The Real’ Deal Ferry having a shot at the vacant British Heavyweight Title against Dover’s Craig ‘The Hammer’ Amer, Ferry took a convincing win to become the Champ in only seconds of the first round and over 2015 has carried on what seems to be his unstoppable onslaught on the world of BKB.

Ferry was then matched with Ex Canadian UFC star Tim Hague, who came to the UK and was amazed at the professional setup of BKB and signed to come and fight Ferry in September, sadly nerves got the better of Hague and he pulled out preferring to stick to his beloved MMA, Ferry was then matched against American Corey Williams who has a rich boxing history for the BKB Heavyweight Transatlantic Title which again Ferry powered through to add the second belt to his collection, still seemingly unstoppable Ferry faced Leicester’s Stevan Miller, at 6ft 7” the biggest BKB fighter in the UK for the World Bare Knuckle Boxing Councils Heavyweight Title. This fight was to be history in the making as it is the first ever FULLY sanctioned title fight to take place in the UK. The World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council are the sanctioning body for BKB Worldwide.

In what was a great fight Miller pushed forward from the off and is the first person to rock Ferry, but Ferry really is a cut above and managed to end Miller with some fast power shots by the end of the first round proving himself unstoppable in BKB and picking up a third title

Professional Boxers joining the ranks

Some huge names in boxing are joining the BKB ranks as they see this as the more exciting, a sport that is literally about to burst fully into the mainstream, earlier in the year we had 85 fight gloved veteran and four time national champion English and Irish Jimmy Sweeney burst onto the BKB scene having huge success, and more recently ex commonwealth champion Kev Bennett, Ex Prize fighter champion and pro boxer Martin Conception and now English Light Heavyweight Champion Travis Dickinson has just moved over to BKB and will make his debut in January.

Who are the big names in BKB?                        

Undoubtedly the two biggest names in BKB are the ones that have been in the game for a while and who have helped it grow so much, Dave Radford and James McCrory, mention BKB and those are the two names that spring to mind. Dave Radford who famously went the distance with Roberto Doran in his professional boxing days, and is still the current BKB middleweight champion, and James McCrory who this month won World Heavyweight BKB Title without forgetting a lot of the others that forged new frontiers in the sport, such as Tony ‘The Leicester Bulldog’ Goward, Seth ‘The Bangor Hammer’ Jones and many more who in the early days were under the direction of Andy Topcliffe who started what was then BBAD Promotions, which was an acronym for ‘Bare Knuckles, Broken Knuckles & Dustups. UBBAD as its now called is still forging forward and pushing to make BKB fully mainstream headed up by Joe Brown, Jim Freeman Dove and Shaun and Amanda Smith, along Bill Ellis who heads of the UBBAD medical Team and Head of Media Stu Armstrong.

Other huge names in the sport have emerged such as, British, Transatlantic and WBKBC Heavyweight Champion, Michael ‘The Real Deal’ Ferry. Michael Ferry the 25-year-old from Newcastle is currently taking out anyone and everyone that’s put in front of him and really is something special. We also have another Geordie along with Ferry and McCrory that’s hotly on Michaels Heels in the WBKBC rankings, the unbeaten 5-0 Billy ‘Bang Bang’ Hawthorn who will be looking at going into Light Heavyweight in 2016.

At Middleweight at the top of the pile we have from Wales, Christian Evans who with an unbeaten 5-0 will soon no doubt fight Jimmy Sweeny with an equally impressive 5-0 as well as Scott Midgely, Ross Chittock and Andrew Price to name but a few.

Then at lightweight we have some great names who have emerged in this new weight Category such as Kev Bennett, Martin Conception, Sean George, Brad Harris who will all be fighting in lightweight title eliminators in January 2016.

Ones to watch for 2016

With the sport becoming so popular we have new fighters wanting to get into the sport each and every day and they seem to come in at a higher and higher standard as they go, often with top Professional or Amateur Boxing records, but my tip for the one to watch for 2016 is without doubt Ferry, and its going to be interesting seeing Hawthorn go down to light heavy, but mark my words watch out for Sean George, Jimmy Sweeney, Kev Bennett, Martin Conception and Brad Harris, that’s if he doesn’t end up going down the pro route which was his original intention that was until like all of us, he fell in love with BKB.

Where to find out more?

The World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council www.wbkbc.com UBBAD www.bbadtv.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/bbadtv YouTube www.youtube.com/bbadtv

Live Streams www.mercurysportnetwork.tv Media www.stuarmstrong.com

Stu Armstrong 

Head of Media

UBBAD Promotions / World Bare Knuckle Boxing Council

www.bbadtv.com

[email protected]