It was Fight Night in Newark as the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship invaded Prudential Center on Saturday for BKFC 95. This marked the second consecutive year the combat fighting organization held an event in Brick City as it continues its ascent in the combat fighting space.
“Great night of fights here at Prudential Center again. Great crowd, and the fighters really, really brought it … Prudential Center and the State of New Jersey are going to be big homes for us,” said BKFC president David Feldman. “We’re really happy with how everything went tonight and really excited for the future.”
BKFC Preliminary Fights
Two of the three preliminary fights featured fighters from New Jersey, with very different outcomes. To begin the night, Perth Amboy’s Gabrielle Roman faced Brooke Evans in a flyweight matchup. From the start, Roman was overmatched as Evans was the aggressor, walking down Roman and throwing bombs from the opening bell, resulting in two knockdowns in the first round. Roman survived the first round but was knocked down three more times in the second, prompting the referee to stop the fight. Roman’s record moved to 2-4-1 in BKFC.
The third and final fight of the prelims featured Jersey City’s Mike Medrano facing Rob Emerson in both fighters’ BKFC debuts. After a timid first round, where both men were feeling each other out, the second round saw both men land big punches, and ring control shifted back and forth throughout. Heading into the third round, both men appeared to have the advantage, with the final round to determine the winner. Medrano rushed Emerson early in the round and landed big punches, but Emerson countered with big shots of his own. As the third and final round ended, who would win the fight was clear, and the judges’ scores showed it. In a split decision (27-30, 30-27, 29-28), Medrano pulled out the victory in his BKFC debut.
BKFC Main Card
The Jersey theme continued with the first fight on the BKFC 95 main card, as Cole Cameron (Neptune City) faced Phil Caracappa (Freehold). Cameron dominated, getting Caracappa off his feet in the opening 20 seconds of the first round. It only got worse for Caracappa, who was knocked out at the 1:44 mark of the first round, with Cameron picking up the win in his BKFC debut.
Noah Getahoun, another New Jersey fighter, made his way to the second bout of the main card, where he faced Dustin Bailey in another matchup of fighters making their debuts. Getahoun was dominated in the first round as Bailey landed big shots but was unable to put Getahoun away. The second round was almost action-less as both men circled and missed many punches, with defense the name of the game. The third round is when Getahoun awakened, landing a big shot that put Bailey down, and he screamed for him to stay down. Bailey got back to his feet, and Getahoun continued his domination. In the end, both fighters dominated a round each, and the judges agreed, as the fight ended in a unanimous draw (all scorecards 28-28).
Dalvin Blair, fighting out of Mays Landing, made quick work of Paris Boyd in the first round with a massive body shot at the 1:22 mark. Blair improved to 3-1 in the BKFC and touted the power punch that secured the win. “God blessed me with this right hand,” said Blair during his post-fight interview in the ring.
Ramsey’s Jimmie Rivera had the spot in the co-main event against Brandon Meyer, who took the fight on just two weeks’ notice. With Meyer not being his original opponent, Rivera played it very cautiously throughout the first couple of rounds, feeling out the spot to land a big shot. In Round 4, he found that spot, throwing a hellacious hook that floored Meyer, who landed on his forehead, leaving everyone worried about his well-being after the fight.
The main event featured Jamel Herring, the reigning Bantamweight champion, facing John Dodson, the reigning BKFC Flyweight Champion, who was looking to become a double champion. Dodson came out fast early on and rushed Herring, who withstood the early onslaught. The remainder of the first round was a chess match for both fighters as they each looked for an opening to land something.
The second and third rounds were more of the same, as the crowd began to boo because of the lack of action between the two fighters. There was a lot of holding and rabbit-punching from Herring and Dodson, but not much action.
In almost every round, Dodson would explode with a rush of punches, but it would amount to nothing, as the action would come to a standstill and the smaller Dodson would grab and hold the bigger Herring, who had the height and reach advantage. In the end, Herring won by split decision in a fight that left many fans at The Rock unhappy, as many left before the result was even announced.
“I think this is my first big test and I’m still getting better,” Herring said in his post-fight interview. “I understand it’s a decision, but it is what it is; the right man got the victory.”
The BKFC president shared the fans’ reactions to the main event and discussed his feelings during the post-fight press conference.
I was very disgusted by that main event. I didn’t like it,” said Feldman. “I get boxing, I get being technical, but throwing one shot at a time, pop-shottin’ and not really engaging is not what we are doing. We are Bare Knuckle Fighting, not Bare Knuckle Boxing. We are there to see a fight and I don’t think we saw a fight.”
With such a Jersey-centric card for an international fight league, the question was whether New Jersey could be a hotbed of fighters for BKFC.
“New Jersey is very saturated with our population and with our fight talent as well. It goes to show that New Jersey is very tough and whether you fly us out somewhere or we have a home crowd, we come to fight and I think we need more of these here.”
Performance of the Night Bonus: Brooke Evans
Knockouts of the Night Bonus: Cole Cameron, Jimmie Rivera, Tony Soto
