BKB president David Tetreault outlines sports entertainment repositioning after Ortiz’s debut in LA

Photo: © 2026 BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing.

David Tetreault is not interested in running a regional circuit. In a wide-ranging interview with MyMMAnews following BKB 56, the promotion’s president laid out what he described as a deliberate repositioning of BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing into a full sports entertainment operation, one built to compete for attention in a crowded combat sports market.

The timing is not accidental. BKB 56 landed on July 18 at The Novo at LA Live in Los Angeles, headlined by the bare knuckle debut of Victor Ortiz, the former WBC welterweight champion who carries a professional boxing record of 33-7-3 with 25 knockouts. Ortiz took a five-round unanimous decision over Dominic Salcido inside the promotion’s patented three-sided ring, the Trigon. The card streamed on VICE TV in the United States and Canada and on talkSPORT in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Tetreault framed the Ortiz booking as a marker rather than a one-off. He told MyMMAnews the promotion is moving toward larger venues, tighter matchmaking, and what he called internal cultural changes designed to raise the standard of every card. The language throughout the interview was measured. He described the pivot as a process, not a rebrand, and pointed to the roster and the events calendar as the evidence.

The calendar backs the ambition. BKB is halfway through a four-city summer tour announced May 18, 2026, under the banner “The Summer of BKB.” The stops:

BKB 55 in Cardiff, Wales, on June 27, headlined by former IBF featherweight champion Lee Selby’s bare knuckle debut. The Cardiff card also streamed on TikTok, a distribution experiment that BKB has publicly credited with helping introduce the promotion to a younger audience.

BKB 56 in Los Angeles on July 18, headlined by Ortiz’s debut.

BKB 57 at The O2 in London on Friday, July 25, titled “Anarchy in the UK.” The heavyweight main event pits Mick Terrill against Florian de la Motte. Directly beneath the main event is a first-of-its-kind Vargas brothers co-main doubleheader. Fernando Vargas Jr. meets Gary Allen at super welterweight. Amado Vargas faces James Springer at super featherweight. Both sons of former unified world champion Fernando Vargas Sr. compete on the same card on the same night, a first for the family in BKB. Also on the London card: crossover celebrity fighters Aaron Chalmers and Jack Fincham in a catchweight bout, along with Bellator and PFL veteran Lee Chadwick, recent super welterweight title challenger Martin Reffell, and top-ranked welterweights Aaron McCallum and Simey Doherty across a twelve-bout slate.

BKB 58 at James L Knight Center in Miami on August 29, headlined by former WBA featherweight and interim lightweight champion Yuriorkis Gamboa’s debut.

BKB 59 has also been added to the calendar. September 19 in Tijuana at Auditorio Municipal, headlined by Julian Fernandez, as part of a landmark deal with Zanfer Promotions that gives BKB its first foothold in the Mexican market.

Running six cards across Cardiff, Los Angeles, London, Miami, and Tijuana within twelve weeks is a considerable logistical step for any combat sports promotion, and it signals a willingness to spend against the growth thesis rather than sit on regional dates. It also fits the pattern of how bare knuckle promotions have used marquee crossover signings to seed new markets. Former IBF champion Selby in Cardiff. Ortiz in LA. Vargas brothers in London. Gamboa in Miami.

Los Angeles delivered a night that supports Tetreault’s framing. Ortiz swept the scorecards. Former WBO interim light middleweight champion Alfredo Angulo, who fought Canelo Alvarez and Erislandy Lara during his boxing career, dropped Rashad Bowens in the second round with a knockout that brought the crowd to its feet. Former IBF super featherweight and WBC interim lightweight champion Jojo Diaz needed only one round to introduce himself to bare knuckle, flattening Nate Williams with a devastating body shot.

“I loved it,” Diaz said afterward. “I’m the type of fighter that likes to bang on the inside and give the fans an action-packed fight. The fighters I’ve been boxing in the boxing ring have been moving around. In the Trigon it’s all close quarters so you have to bang it. I feel like this is my home.”

The night’s other statement came from LT “Smash” Nelson, whose pound-for-pound No. 1 ranking in bare knuckle got a live-fire test. Dropping down in weight, Nelson knocked out ranked contender Serob Minasyan in the fourth round after losing two teeth mid-fight. That is the specific detail bare knuckle audiences remember, and precisely the kind of moment BKB is trying to market on national television.

Ortiz’s own post-fight was more measured.

“Glory be to God, he gave me the victory. It was a hard one but I enjoyed it.”

Not everyone in the audience was celebrating the result. Muay Thai world champion Liam Harrison, watching from home, posted a widely shared reaction on X. “This is sad to see tbh,” Harrison wrote. “He had a solid career WBC champ, fought Mayweather. Why’s he having to smash his face to pieces like this at nearly 40?” That question, at the intersection of promotional ambition and fighter welfare, is one bare knuckle has been asked before and will continue to be asked. Ortiz left the ring with visible cuts and swelling around his left eye.

Matchmaking was the other pillar Tetreault returned to in the MyMMAnews interview. He described a more selective booking process intended to move away from filler bouts and toward fights with clearer stakes, whether ranking implications or stylistic appeal. That is a familiar promise in combat sports, and one measured by cards rather than press releases. The next three events across London, Miami, and Tijuana will be the first real test of whether the stated standard holds when the venue lights come on.

Tetreault also credited BKB founder Mike Vazquez with driving the international expansion strategy. Vazquez, speaking in the May press release announcing the summer tour, called it “a statement of intent” and pointed to the depth of the promotion’s roster of world champions and rising talent.

The broader question sitting underneath the interview is where bare knuckle boxing fits in the wider combat sports economy. The discipline has moved from novelty to a regulated fixture in several US jurisdictions over the past decade, with a growing footprint in the UK and, now, in Mexico. BKB and its larger rival BKFC operate under different formats. BKB uses the three-sided Trigon and largely markets to boxing audiences. BKFC uses a squared circle and leans harder into MMA-adjacent branding and crossover MMA veterans. The two promotions are increasingly competing for the same crossover names.

A BKB positioning itself as a sports entertainment entity, rather than a niche operator, is making a bet on that trajectory continuing. The bet is a substantial one. Six cards on three continents in twelve weeks is not a maintenance schedule. It is a scaling schedule.

The answer arrives in stages, beginning at The O2 on Friday.