Luis Palomino and James Lilley clash for the former’s BKFC lightweight title at BKFC 45 on June 23rd.
The fistic fireworks broadcast on Fite TV as well as the Bare Knuckle TV app. The pugilistic proceedings emanate from Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida.
Palomino spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News to discuss the machinations of the matchup, maintaining a championship reign of over a thousand days versus trying to derail that momentum, and so much more. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Luis Palomino
What were your initial thoughts when this bout offer versus Lilley came your way?
“Well, actually it was a surprise. I was getting ready for Austin Trout, you know. I’ve been asking for big names for quite a while now and the big names have been literally just ducking me right now. At this point that’s the word to use is duck. They use an excuse ah, they’re debuting. You know Chad Mendes, Eddie Alvarez, they can’t fight the welterweight champion right away and they use that excuse to hide behind and they don’t want to face me. But Austin Trout is a two-time WBA world champion.”
“He got to beat (Miguel) Cotto, fought Canelo, and then fought some big names, you know, known worldwide. He did his debut against Diego Sanchez, he won, and I’d give him a chance to fight for the title right away, everything was set. I was training for him for like two months straight… I even agreed to fight him in his own hometown because no other big name would accept to fight me. So I even made it easy for him and I signed the contract to fight him in Las Cruces, New Mexico.”
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship
Luis Palomino continued, “Next thing you know, later on something happened with the venue. It changed the venue to Miami, Florida and he started getting funny asking for more money. So that left him out of the loop and it surprised me they brought me Lilley. Now I think Lilley deserves to have a shot, don’t get me wrong. He’s 7-0, he’s 4-0 in the organization, and he’s a bare-knuckle champion in England. So I think that he’s more than deserving of a shot.”
“But I’m in this position where I’m trying to get like the bigger names. Because to be very honest, who knows Lilley? Nobody knows Lilley. I’m not shutting down the job that he’s done but who has he faced? He hasn’t faced anybody that is nowhere near the people that I’ve faced. His name doesn’t weigh nowhere near the names that I want to fight.”
“So to answer the question it was surprising for the simple fact that I was booked to fight somebody else. I had to change my entire camp from a southpaw. But he deserves a title shot. 7-0 in this industry is very hard to accomplish.”
BKFC
How did you feel recently seeing that BKFC graphic that your lightweight world title reign has gone over a thousand days and what are your thoughts on the Roman Reigns comparisons?
“Yeah, that was cool. I actually never had thought about it. It was like a thousand and a hundred-something days I think it was. Yeah, three years and a half holding the title like, man. Yeah, of course, you know but you don’t think about it. So then when it pops up you’re like oh *****, I’ve been holding the title for three and a half years (laughs). It’s like yeah, more confidence you know… It’s great, man. Cool to see that. I hadn’t even thought about it.”
“I’m so in here and when I see that I’m like oh **** that’s true, man. Three and a half years (laughs). That’s great… (laughs) I like that. I was seeing, I was wondering who the hell was Roman Reigns. I was reading some of those comments. I’m like who the hell is Roman Reigns? (laughs).”
BKFC 45
When we spoke before your Tom Shoaff fight, you said you were looking to make a highlight out of it. Is there a particular outcome you see for this fight or a certain statement you want to make with this one?
“Oh, man, you know, we took (Tom) Shoaff down three times in that. That dude is tough. He wouldn’t just get up but he would get up with a smile on his face (laughs). That’s like you know you’re meant for bare-knuckle boxing when you’re like getting knocked on your ass and you’re getting up with a smile on your face, man. It’s like what the ****? Yeah, man, Lilley, we have to turn off the lights on ‘Lights Out’ Lilley. There’s only one ‘Lights Out’ and that’s Chris ‘Lights Out’ Lytle, you know what I mean?”
“So yeah he’s going to be taking that name because we’re going to turn out the lights on Lilley, a thousand percent. We have to, we have to. We have to make it memorable. Have to make it so everybody remembers hey, I’m the pound for pound (number one). I’m dangerous in any format, you know what I mean?”
Luis Palomino vs James Lilley
Luis Palomino continued, “I choose to box in fights. I choose to go more rounds in fights and to give the fans the future of bare-knuckle boxing because we have a lot of fans out there where it’s like yeah, the brute-loving fans. Like the killer instinct, Lorenzo Hunt fight fans, they want to see blood and knockouts which is great and I want in for that. But then you have the fans that appreciate boxing, the skill, and bare-knuckle boxing, man, I’m telling you. I still do believe it’ll be even bigger than UFC.”
“For the simple reason that it’s simpler and easier to understand for the masses. There’s no grappling here it’s like clinch, punch, cut, cut, cut, go to sleep. But when you put the science behind it, they say like boxing is a thinking man’s sport. So when you put the science behind the bare-knuckle boxing and you put some brains in there and not just go for your primal instincts but you can mix both, it turns into a beautiful thing to watch, man.”
“You have to open things better, you have to take better risks to be able to keep it exciting. I mean you don’t have to try to keep it exciting. It’s always going to be exciting. There’s two-minute rounds and there’s no gloves. But to keep it like that next level where you’re actually thinking in there, you’re not just brawling. I think that I’m going to show them what the future of bare-knuckle is.”
