Barrie Jones and Tommy Turner battle for the Police Gazette middleweight world title at BYB 18 on June 25th.
This huge cross-promotional event between BYB Extreme and BKB emanates from Indigo at The O2 Arena in London, England, and broadcasts in North America on BeIN Sports.
Turner spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News before this US versus UK showdown. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Barrie Jones
You’re one of the BKB fighters who has that experience in the BYB Extreme Mighty Trigon already. Even though your debut win was sub-twenty seconds, does it still breed a certain level of familiarity as your return to the confined combative space?
“Well like you said to be honest, I wasn’t in there long enough to really notice any like major differences. But I’d done a bit of training in the week. Like you know in corners tight in case you get stuck in the corners. But I’m sure the next fight probably last a bit longer than my last one.”
What are some differences between fighting in the BKB ring versus battling in BYB Extreme’s Mighty Trigon?
“Yeah, obviously there’s not a lot of room to like kind of use your boxing abilities. If you need to use it, it’s a lot smaller. So you’re kind of forced into having a fight a little bit. The BKB rings are quite small anyways. So there’s not a lot of room in there either. But yeah you know like I said, I wasn’t in there for a long time. So I’m sure I’ll learn more like in my next fight.”
BYB vs BKB
Tommy Turner also had a succinct performance in the Trigon. What are your thoughts on what Turner brings to the table as a fighter?
“Yeah, like you said he stormed onto the scene. Obviously, I didn’t really know much about him until it was announced that I was fighting him. Obviously watched one or two clips but I don’t tend to watch or get into it too much. I just put the focus on myself and get myself my best condition. Then hopefully that’s good enough to win on the night. He looks really aggressive, strong. Looks, you know; he comes forward, he’s all action as well. So should be a good fight.”
What are your thoughts on this Police Gazette Cup, BYB vs BKB style cross-promotional event?
“Some people could be the best in the company or whatever. So you get other people saying oh why can’t he fight him? Or he’s better or he’s the best in the world. So it’s good when you’ve got cross-promotion fights. In fighting, sometimes you just need to see who’s the best, man. It’s more exciting to the fans. We’re literally going to see the better fighters from different promotions fighting each other.”
BYB 18
What is it like becoming a three-weight BKB world champion and being interwoven into the history of the Police Gazette belt too?
“When I first started out, there wasn’t a plan for that. I didn’t even think I was going to get a world title fight. I didn’t know what I was going to actually do with it all. But to win three titles in three different weight divisions is a major achievement. But to me like, I’ve already done that now. So you know I’ve got to focus on my next fight that I plan on winning. Because to be honest, if I lost my next fight it don’t mean nothing to me anymore like you know winning these titles.”
“So I don’t have something to hang onto… Yeah, it’s an amazing achievement. Scott Burt is always experienced too on the history about it (Police Gazette gold). It’s interesting. I swear like afterwards I’m finished maybe I’ll appreciate what I’ve done a little bit more than I actually do now. Because when you’re fighting, you’re kind of more focused on the fight rather than the actual title. But I do at the moment. But I’m sure once I’m done fighting and look back, it will be an amazing achievement.”
Barrie Jones vs Tommy Turner
Your bare knuckle record is 9-0 with eight finishes and six of them transpiring in round one. Do you have a certain visualization for what the outcome of this Turner fight will be or is it a flow state, be adaptable kind of approach?
“Yeah listen, it’s always nice to go in there and try to get ’em out early. But like in my last fight, I also learned that it’s not as simple as that. So you’ve got to prepare for every scenario and learn to adapt in the ring. Which I’m capable of doing like I can fight in there but if I need to, I’ll have to use my boxing skills.”
