Reyno finishes Krejci in the first round of BKFC’s South American debut with Uruguay’s president at ringside

(Photo: BKFC)

Gaston “Tonga” Reyno needed 89 seconds. That is all the time it took for the Uruguayan to close out Josh Krejci by KO on Saturday, July 25 at Antel Arena in Montevideo, sending 9,467 hometown fans into the kind of noise that only a first-round stoppage in a squared circle can produce. The win pushed Reyno to 4-0 under the BKFC banner. All four have come by stoppage. For a promotion making its South American premiere, it was the cleanest possible opening statement.

Uruguayan President Yamandú Orsi watched from ringside. He and his family arrived early, walked through the backstage area, and visited Reyno in his locker room before the walk. In a video BKFC posted afterward, Orsi embraced Reyno and complimented the fighter’s custom shoes, which were designed in the light blue and white of the Uruguayan flag. Conor McGregor, who co-owns BKFC, reacted publicly to the images. Head-of-state attendance at a bare-knuckle event of any kind is rare. Head-of-state attendance at a promotional debut in a new market is close to unheard of.

The card also delivered the promotion its first attendance milestone in South America. Antel Arena has hosted a UFC event once before, when Valentina Shevchenko defended her flyweight belt against Liz Carmouche in a rematch that drew a reported 9,225. BKFC pulled 9,467 for its first outing in the country. That figure represents Saturday’s headline sale.

The finish itself lived in the pocket. Reyno has built his BKFC run on volume in short exchanges and a willingness to plant his feet when the other man is still resetting. His first three wins came at BKFC events across 2024 and 2025, including a second-round KO of Dusty Sparks at BKFC 85 and a third-round KO of Milton Volter at BKFC 78. On Saturday, working in front of the loudest home crowd he has ever fought in, he shortened his own arithmetic. Per Efe, he threw 17 punches and landed 8 clean. Krejci threw 29 and landed 16 before the referee waved it off. Both men landed. Only one of them stayed upright.

Krejci, a durable American out of Missouri, dropped to 2-3 in the promotion after the stoppage. He came in off a first-round KO of Austin Peterson in his prior outing and had been a credible test on paper. The finish came fast enough that the tape will not give his corner much to work with.

Reyno is 39. He is also, in his other job, an established combat sports analyst for ESPN Latin America and a longtime member of the ESPN Knockout broadcast team. Fighters who are also broadcasters tend to talk carefully about the sport they cover. He has spent the last two years publicly lobbying BKFC to book its first South American card in his home country, and he has done so on television, in Spanish, to millions of viewers across the region. The promotion listened. The country turned out. The main event finished the argument.

The co-main added another layer of intrigue. Guido “Ninja” Cannetti, the Argentine veteran who spent nearly a decade in the UFC bantamweight division from 2014 through 2023, made his bare-knuckle debut a winning one at featherweight, taking a unanimous decision over Emiliano Nielli. Cannetti fought from a southpaw stance, landed multiple heavy shots to the head and body throughout the fight, and scored a third-round knockdown that cemented the scorecards. He unofficially outlanded Nielli 99 to 72. Nielli’s chin kept him in the fight and produced a pair of hematomas on the left side of his forehead by the time the final bell rang. The transition from four-ounce gloves to wrapped wrists tends to reward fighters who already understand distance and hand placement. Twelve rounds of UFC experience did that for Cannetti.

There is a broader story here about the sport’s map. Bare-knuckle boxing, in its modern regulated form, has spent most of its recent history planting flags in the United States and the United Kingdom, with recent expansions into Italy and Mexico. Uruguay makes 13 countries the promotion has visited. South America is a different kind of beachhead. The region has produced generations of world-class boxers and MMA fighters, and the pipeline of talent that runs through Argentina, Brazil, and now Uruguay has always been deeper than the promotional infrastructure serving it. Five other Uruguayan fighters joined Reyno on Saturday’s card, all making their professional bare-knuckle debuts. The intent was not subtle.

Whether the promotion returns to Montevideo, or uses this as a launch pad into Buenos Aires and São Paulo, will depend on gate numbers and broadcast metrics that will not be public for weeks. What is on the record now is a sold-out debut, a president in his seat, a fighter co-owner publicly celebrating, and a headline finish before the second minute.

The card streamed live worldwide on the BKFC App. Reyno’s next assignment has not been announced. It is difficult to see how it does not run through Montevideo again.