Friday night at The InterContinental in Miami Florida, David Feldman brought the fastest growing, and purest form of combat sports, Bare-Knuckle Fighting Championship to the sunshine state. At the top of the bill was a 155lb Title fight for both the BKFC and Police Gazette Diamond belts between reigning champion Luis “Baboon” Palomino and the number one ranked contender Jim “The Bare Knuckle Beast” Alers. This fight had legitimate heat between the 2 former friends and training partners who trained together when they were both on the come up in MMA.
There was bad blood brewing, and there was plenty of smack talk between the two as they were originally scheduled to do battle earlier in the year but had to reschedule as Alers’ coach caught COVID, and Alers chose to bow out for safety reasons for his family and his fellow athletes at BKFC.
Friday night they were finally going to settle the score. No more drama, no more talking, on that night they were going to fight!
This one was over almost as quickly as it started as Palomino finished Alers 44 seconds into round one by knockout. Alers really didn’t have an answer for what Palomino brought to the fight. The jab, the best punch in all combat sports, and Palomino has a laser-like jab that packs big power. Palomino was throwing it, and Alers was coming into it, which was a bad combination for Alers. The power of Palomino and the forward motion of Alers meeting the jab told the story of the fight. It set up the champ to land big punches. Alers was dropped once, and then dropped and finished with a perfectly placed right cross just a few seconds later.
Palomino retained his BKFC belt and added The Police Gazette Diamond Belt, and The “People’s Champ” belt that Alers had been flaunting and as a man of his word relinquished it to Palomino as he said he would should he (Alers) lose.
After the fight ended, as the doctors were tending to the fallen Alers Palomino walked over and seemingly began the friendship healing process by patting Alers on the back. As the official announcement was about to be read they embraced in the center of the ring. It wasn’t a quick ‘bro hug’ but rather a hug between friends that they held onto longer than the aforementioned ‘bro style’ hug that many fighters exchange post-fight, and you could feel the emotion both in the arena, and at home watching on the BKTV app. Seemingly squashing their beef. However, others in the promotion had some things to say about Alers post-fight.
As if Alers wasn’t already having a bad day, a couple of fighters on the BKFC roster decided to chime in with their thoughts on Alers and his performance on Friday night. We should not be surprised as we see things like this all the time. No chill, and no following the old adage of not kicking a man when he’s down.
Former BKFC Heavyweight Champion Arnold Adams started the commentary on his Facebook page:
“Louis palomino made Akers look like a rookie
like this was his first fight #bkfc14″
No sooner did that post hit the public, BKFC 165lb fighter Tom Shoaff decided to express his thoughts on Alers as well.
“I know. I absolutely loved it. No head movement ass. No footwork ass. Only throws two punches and they’re both right hands looking ass. Tongue sticking out looking for man love looking ass. Fuck that dude.“
While Alers did get handled rather quickly, it was his first loss as a bare-knuckle fighter, and with a record of 4-1 including three knockouts of his own, Alers will be back, and we may see a booking between him and Shoaff who obviously, based on his quote, has zero respect for what Alers brings to the ring. Shoaff by the way has a record of 1-3 at BKFC.
Knowing Alers as I do, he backs down from no challenge, or challenger, so if the fight is offered to him, you can expect him to sign on the dotted line to toe the line with Shoaff. While I did say that Alers backs down from no one, I am not expecting him to call-out the former heavyweight champion Arnold Adams. They may excahnge words via social media, but that I’m guessing would be the extent of their interaction. Although I am curious as to why the heavyweight Adams decided to fire shots at Alers.
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.