BKFC Heavyweight Mark Godbeer has traveled the world plying his trade as a prizefighter. From Bellator to the UFC, and now he has crossed the pond from his home in England to conquer Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship with his sights firmly set on dethroning Heavyweight champion Joey Beltran. He left his home, traveled to Dubai where he had to quarantine for 2 weeks before being allowed to travel to the U.S.A. He has now arrived, and his first fight is booked in December at BKFC 15.
As the new kid on the block if you will, one would expect some of the other fighters on the roster to poke the bear to see what he is made of, well the first one to really take a shot at him was Marcel Stamps. The middleweight who stepped up to the heavyweight division to face Joey Beltran for the Heavyweight Title. Stamps took the first three rounds from the champ but was finished via TKO in the 4th round. According to Stamps, he broke his hands on Beltran’s head, and couldn’t continue.
However, while that may be true, Beltran showed why he is the champ.He took the best Stamps had to offer in the first two and a half rounds and then started to takeover in the 3rd and 4th by landing big punches and putting Stamps in trouble. At one point in the 4th, and what would end up being the final round, Stamps actually didn’t respond in a timely fashion to instructions from the referee, yet he let the bout continue longer than it should have as Stamps was clearly done. Beltran had put the power on Stamps who was undoubtedly feeling the effects of the bigger man, and at one point Stamps declared to the referee that he was kicked in the neck by the champ, which was completely untrue. Beltran started slowly but finished in strong championship fashion leaving no doubt that he was the champion for a reason. Also of note, in that final round, Beltran knocked Stamps down numeerous times, but the knockdowns were called slips by the referee, which was the wrong call in every instance. Those slips were legit knockdowns and should have been called as such.
In a post made by Godbeer’s reps at GOAT Combat Agency headed up by Scott Farley and Vince Anderson where they wanted to see who fans thought Godbeer should fight first, Stamps commented Walt Harris with a smiley face emoji! Of course, referencing the fight between Godbeer and Harris at UFC 217 in 2017. A fight which ended in the 1st round when Harris was disqualified for an illegal groin strike, in a fight he was clearly winning at the point of the stoppage! Stamps and Harris train together so the obvious dig at Godbeer should have almost been expected.
Well, that comment set off a back and forth between Godbeer and Stamps, and then BKFC 165’er Joe Elmore jumped in on the action tag-teaming Stamps with Godbeer as they are training together in Atlanta.
Below are the highlights of the back and forth between all three men. Stamps is seemingly willing to take on both Godbeer and Elmore, and I am sure both would oblige Stamps as none of these men know what saying no to a prizefight means, that word is not present in any of their vocabularies!
There was also a jab at UFC Heavyweight Walt Harris from Vince Anderson who represents Godbeer. Anderson got lippy with Joey Beltran on a post on my Facebook page recently, and the champ quickly let him know that he’s not that guy to mess with. I just hope Anderson stops acting like Ali Abdel-Aziz from Dominance MMA and lets his fighters do the smack-talking to one another before he gets chin checked by someone he doesn’t want any part of.
Godbeer has been in the states for less than a week, and he is making new friends quickly. The banter between the three is definitely a good read, and quite entertaining. Not sure if we ever see any of these men matchup with one another, however, the possibility is there, and for BKFC President David Feldman, it gives him some very interesting options moving forward in multiple weight classes, which as a promoter is a great problem to have.!
Christopher James has been in the MMA industry for 15 years, Working as a ring announcer for promotions like the XFC, Island Fights, Combat Night and Fight Nights Global during his career. Chris’ love for the sport and the athletes that partake in it led him to writing and doing face to face interviews with the athletes he admired and respected. Chris isn’t conventional by any stretch of the imagination, he has his own style, and takes pride in not being a “cookie-cutter” member of the media. Unique and sometimes controversial takes are what he brings to the table, forcing folks to think a little differently about the world of MMA. He also has a love for music as he has been a dj for 25 years and his love for music gets brought to the MMA world when he gets his guests to sing on his weekly show Cage Side with Christopher James which can be seen Wednesday nights on FACEBOOK LIVE, and soon via podcast.