Johnny Bedford clashed with Nick Mamalis at BKFC 1 on June 2nd, 2018. ‘Brutal’ dispatched ‘Garfield’ in the second stanza and Bedford now looks back on that stoppage victory as part of the five-year anniversary of this inaugural Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship card.
The former two-time BKFC bantamweight champion spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News at this significant checkpoint from this landmark event. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Johnny Bedford
What were your thoughts on getting a bare-knuckle boxing bout offer for Summer 2018?
“Completely different landscape. It was brand new, it was this new sport that obviously David Feldman worked really hard to make a possibility. But man like, without speaking too much on it I was really, really, really fortunate for timing and where I was at in my career and life. When bare-knuckle boxing became a thing, man, it was almost like a resurgence of a career for me. Where I knew that this was something I could have a ton of success in and be really good at.”
“Now that we finally have this platform to do it, so timing was crazy for me. Because I was at a point in my life back then in 2018 where I was contemplating if I was going to keep fighting or not. MMA was this grind that I’ve done for the last fifteen years at that point. I’ve already been to the UFC, getting back was going to be really difficult. I knew that and was like man, do I have it in me still ?”
Johnny Bedford continued, “Then bare-knuckle boxing became a thing, man, and it was again, a resurgence of my career, a resurgence of my mental health I guess. Something fresh, something new, it was this new exciting sport. I knew again that I had an opportunity to really make a name for myself and then ideally change my life and my family’s life, financially and all those ways as well.”
BKFC 1
What was your individual feelings on fight day? As an extension, what was the general vibe backstage from what you could tell?
“The vibe was different. It was different than anything I’d ever been before. Obviously, I’ve been in the back of millions of fights whether I’m fighting myself or coaching or anything else. But bare-knuckle was different because it was almost like the olden days of these guys that have never done this before, you know. Back in 2003 when I started fighting MMA and ****, you’d show up and there’d be guys that literally have never even been in a gym before and fighting.”
“It wasn’t to that where there were all these novices but nobody really knew what to expect. Nobody knew. Obviously, you can’t no one’s sparring bare-knuckle. So you know what I mean? At that first event, I feel like everyone that was part of it did a great job matching that first card because it was everything they needed it to be, I think. Everyone’s ego was there, everyone was excited about this new sport. Everyone thought that oh, this sport is going to be for me, this is my chance.”
“The ones that obviously that figured it out knew how to use their IQ and figure this game out are the ones that have now had the most success. You look at Bare Knuckle 1, look at all the guys that fought there. It was myself, Reggie Barnett, Joey Beltran, so I mean guys that have been multiple-time world champions now all started there. I think a big part of it was that we got our experience, we got our feet wet first, and we knew how to run with this ****.”
Johnny Bedford vs Nick Mamalis
You knew even before that bare-knuckle debut that you didn’t need to bomb these big punches to have success. What were the sensations like landing that first pro bare knuckle strike? Also, what were the thoughts on the Mamalis fight in general?
“I think that’s where you find out the guys who have done this and the guys who have not done this. Because you see right away honestly, man. Like when I fought my first ever bare-knuckle fight, it was against a Bellator (MMA) vet Nick Mamalis. Had similar experience as I did in the MMA world. But I just; couple things. I knew that I was kind of cut from a different cloth. Don’t want to beat on my own chest here but I knew that we lived a different life.”
“I knew that I grew up a little rougher than him, I grew up a little tougher than him. But again when that fight started and I touched him and as soon as I started hitting him, you could tell right away that one of us likes this and one of us does not. That’s always like when we sign new people or you hear about these big names coming, I just personally, I don’t get super excited until I see them once. Because I want to see how they react to that. You know what I mean?”
“This is not a knock at all on him and I don’t think he quit per se. A lot of people are talking **** about him. But you saw it firsthand a couple of weeks ago with Luke Rockhold. He said he’ll never do this **** again without gloves on. It’s not for him and I think it’s not for a majority of the people. It’s not that it’s any more dangerous, it’s just different and it feels different. Without that little four-ounce glove on, it feels different, people don’t like it. Once you start seeing your own blood, people start falling apart.”
