This past Friday night we witnessed Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship BKFC 14 from The InterContinental in Miami. The main event featured a 155lb title fight between reigning champion Luis “Baboon” Palomino and the consensus number one contender Jim “The Bare Knuckle Beast” Alers. The fight lasted 44 seconds with Palomino making it look easy in retaining his belt.
Alers and Palomino had beef leading up to the fight, but have seemingly squashed it after the fight. However, it seems this fight has spawned some other interesting matchups based on social media traffic from others on the BKFC roster concerning Alers.
It started with a Facebook post from former Heavyweight Champion Arnold Adams. Which was commented on by 165lb fighter Tom Shoaff.
Which prompted us here at Cage Side with Christopher James to write an article about all of it.
After publishing my article and sharing it, BKFC heavyweight Bobo O’Bannon made a comment on my post to question the motivation of both Adams and Shoaff, and why they chose to kick a man while he’s down. Alers also got in on the action responding to Shoaff. Needless to say, now everyone wants to fight one another.
I am actually digging both matchups if they come to fruition.
Shoaff has been in some highly exciting fights since joining BKFC, unfortunately, his record stands at 1-3. Alers has amassed a record of 4-1, with the lone loss coming to the champion Palomino in a title fight. Alers has nothing to gain from fighting, and beating Shoaff except getting the respect from Shoaff that he feels he desrves, whereas a fight, and win for Shoaff against the number one 155lb fighter in the world could definitely elevate his status with the promotion. Stylistically, it is quite interesting. Shoaff is technically more proficient as a boxer, and he has speed and great footwork. Alers in many eyes is the more powerful and explosive fighter in the equation and would present a fight similar to what Joe Elmore brought to Shoaff in a Fight of the Night performance at BKFC 12, a fight that Shoaff lost, but was certainly holding his own. If not for following a boxing type scoring system where a knockdown costs the knocked down fighter the round. Shoaff may have won that fight.
Alers and Shoaff have no respect for one another as evidenced in the screenshots above. While Alers told Shoaff to go get a few wins and then maybe we can talk about a fight, if President David Feldman decided to book this fight as the next for Alers, he would certainly sign the contract, as would Shoaff because what both men have in common is they don’t say no or back down from a fight.
As far as O’Bannon vs Adams, well when the big boys dance, anything is possible. Adams is the former BKFC Heavyweight Champion and holds a 3-1 record which includes a win over current champion Joey “The Mexicutioner” Beltran at BKFC 2. O’Bannon is 2-0 as a bare-knuckle fighter with his most recent win coming a month ago at the Toe the Line Fight Series against Mike Kyle. O’Bannon is a boxer at heart and is a big old country boy that has no quit in him, and packs power in his hands, if he connects clean, you are done. Adams would be the faster of the two as far as hand speed, and footwork, and of course, he packs a wallop in his punches as well. Adams has not fought since dropping the title to current UFC Heavyweight Chase Sherman last August at BKFC 7.
O’Bannon who is ranked number 9 in the Police Gazette (the sanctioning organization for BKFC) Rankings would certainly benefit more than the number 2 ranked Adams if they were to fight and O’Bannon pulled off the victory. For Adams, beating the number 9 guy is what he is supposed to do, and while the match up seemingly wouldn’t elevate Adams’ status, he seems willing to toe the line with O’Bannon if for no other reason than to let O’Bannon know that he isn’t ready for the big time.
What I do know is that these 4 fighters, all come to win whenever they step between the ropes. With the social media feuds that are now going on, we have a storyline for both fights to build from that I personally feel is going to continue to grow, which is a promoter’s dream. It is much easier to book fights with guys that are pissed at one another and are talking about it on social media. Fans get engaged, the marketing team gets easy work because they don’t have to create a campaign, as the fighters take care of it and the media team just has to share it!
Since all this drama has started from a Facebook post, and my article about it my only question is, I wonder if BKFC President David Feldman is going to pay me for taking on the role of matchmaker?
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.