NEWCASTLE, United Kingdom – Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship made their triumphant return to the United Kingdom with BKFC 46 on Saturday from a packed Walker Activity Dome in Newcastle and broadcast globally on the BKFC App.
In the highly anticipated welterweight main event, England’s Rico “Bon Bon” Franco (9-2) stopped the valiant Kaleb “Lionheart” Harris (6-5) of Lake, Mississippi. Rocked hard by Harris’ body and head shots in the opening stanza, Franco would turn the tables in the second round, dropping the American five times. Showing uncommon valor, Harris would recover from three additional knockdowns in round three to win the fourth stanza scoring multiple “go for broke” big right hands.
In the middle of the fifth round, Harris would fall for the final time with Franco in a brilliant performance being declared the TKO winner at 0:58 of the round. The fight set two new BKFC records as five knockdowns were scored in a round (2) and nine knockdowns were accumulated overall by one fighter.
In the co-feature, 26-year-old welterweight Robert Barry (1-0), made a star-making BKFC debut with a fifth-round stoppage of Ben Bonner (1-1). The southpaw Barry opened strong, throwing bombs and dropping Bonner with a straight left. Following a dominant round for Barry in the second stanza, Bonner would mount a huge comeback in round 3. However, Bonner would be dropped again in the fourth, leading to the conclusion of the fight in the final round.
In the special attraction lightweight clash, 24-year-old Lewis “The Machine” Keen (2-0) stopped BKFC debuting Zdenek Pernica (0-1) of the Czech Republic. Following an avalanche of devastating body shots, Pernica would fall and be counted at the 0:32 mark of the third round.
Cruiserweight David Oskar (2-0) continued his impressive BKFC start, dropping Matty Hill (0-1), four times in the first round towards the stoppage at 1:44. In a phenomenal performance, Oskar landed multiple power shots from both hands.
Fighting in the welterweight division, Paul “Cookie” Cook (1-0) stopped Aaron Foster (0-1) in the first round. Using blistering body shots, Cook dropped Foster twice before being declared the winner at 0:41 of the opening stanza.
In a sensational light heavyweight distance battle, Poland’s Bartlomiej Krol (2-0) defeated “Goscha” (0-1) of the United Kingdom. In a bout featuring excellent and aggressive two-way action throughout, the southpaw Krol would recover from a third-round knockdown to win a unanimous decision. Scores were 48-46 on all three judge’s scorecards.
Featherweight Gary Fox (1-1) stopped Hayden Sherriff (0-1) at 0:38 of the opening round. Also, in the featherweight division Patryk Sagan (1-0) dropped Morgan Starkey (1-2) twice in the first round to score a TKO victory.
Featherweight Robbie Brown (1-0) knocked Ben Hatchett (0-1) to the canvas four times towards a first-round victory. In the middleweight division, Arron Blakey (2-0), scored three quick knockdowns of Krystian Nadolski (0-1) to earn the stoppage at 1:20 of the opening stanza.
Cruiserweight newcomer Karl Thompson (1-0), impressed in his BKFC debut with a first-round knockout of Dustin Rabiega (0-1). Rabiega started strong before succumbing to Thompson’s power, falling three times, with the fight being called off at the 1:06 mark.
