Travis Thompson and Reggie Barnett Jr. fought on BKFC 1. Barnett Jr. earned got the W, via a unanimous decision over Thompson on June 2nd, 2018.
Thompson spoke to Dylan Bowker of Bare Knuckle News for the five-year anniversary of this inaugural event and pulled back the curtain on the landmark event. Excerpts from the chat are below.
Travis Thompson
What were your initial thoughts when a bare-knuckle boxing offer came your way in Summer 2018?
“Well my first thoughts were; Dave (Feldman) called me up. Like I’m pretty good friends with the Feldmans. His dad was my boxing trainer. So Dave’s been a part of my entire professional career. So I mean, he pretty much told me that he got bare knuckle approved. I was like are you serious? He’s like oh yeah, you’re going to be fighting on pay-per-view. So I was totally stoked for that. You can’t hurt my hands so I wasn’t really nervous about any of that.”
“It was just – the one thing that messed me up the most was when the actual fight did happen, you know. There’s a big difference between fighting with gloves and without gloves. As I noticed after the first fight, that little bit of cushion that you have on your gloves is a big difference for your hand-eye coordination and just your footwork. So if you step in when you go to throw a punch, when you have the pad on it’s going to touch. It’s going to hit that person. When the gloves are off can’t touch them”
BKFC
How did it feel being part of the sport’s return to America after over a century?
“Yeah, it was awesome. The one thing, I mean, these are only five two-minute rounds. But I mean technically in history, Reggie and I are the first people to go the distance. Because back in the day, they wouldn’t stop until someone lost or someone won. At that first event, Reggie and I were the first two to go the distance. Everyone else was getting knocked out real early.”
It seems like a strong fight IQ was shown by yourself and Barnett Jr even that early on. Is that a fair way to characterize that?
“I absolutely agree with that, absolutely. Because you know, we both had kind of tough upbringings. We always solved our problems out on the streets. I mean growing up for me as a kid, I was always a small dude. I always got into fights all the time. I’ve always been a tough dude, that’s why my name’s ‘The Animal’. I’m always gonna give a hundred percent, I’m always going to be in your face, I’m always gonna come at you. It showed there in that fight too. Reggie did the same thing.”
Travis Thompson vs Reggie Barnett Jr.
What were your main takeaways from that debut bare-knuckle effort?
“I mean the one thing I took from the fight was that you’ve got to get that extra. Like the week of your fight, gloves come off all the way. So when I’m doing mitts even during camp, I’ll do mitts without gloves on at all because that range is a big factor. That range that I had said before, like when you’re a pro boxer and you’re boxing with an eight-ounce glove, that glove is still going to land on their face or to their body. Whereas with the glove off, it’s not landing anymore.”
“So you’ve got to make sure you step through every punch. So that was my main takeaway. I mean it was great, it was cool to be a part of history because that was the first one in the US. So I mean that’s awesome, that was really cool. Dave Feldman knows me personally. So he knows I’m always there to fight. I’m always going to grind; I’m always going to do what I have to do. So that’s never changed and never will change.”
“But as I progressed in bare-knuckle and I started getting a couple more fights, they kept doing them in Spring-Summer and I was getting my losses. If you actually look at my record in bare-knuckle, all my losses have come in Spring-Summer or even in the Fall. You don’t see any losses in the winter because I have time to actually just train. When I train, I’m undefeated. So what I’ve taken away from it is the range is important and to give yourself more time. If you’re gonna do this, you gotta do it a hundred percent.”
BKFC 1
Is there a certain level of camaraderie with Barnett Jr. as well as the other fighters on BKFC 1 considering how you all were unified in this history-making return to form for bare-knuckle?
“Absolutely and if you know anything about me like I’m not that type of person. Like I work for a living. You’re calling me right now, I’m in Virginia (and) I live in Pennsylvania. I’m doing pipe work out here in Virginia. So I mean, I work, I train (laughs), that’s all I do, you know what I mean? So when it comes down to the sports and fighting, I’m not the type of guy that’s like oh that’s my man.”
Travis Thompson continued, “Afterwards, we’re gonna hug and be buddies. I’m not like that. I don’t give a **** because I’ve got a job to go back to on Monday. But Reggie was like, dude I don’t know what it is, man. I don’t want to like the person that I’m fighting because I’m there to kick your *** but he’s just a very good dude. After the fight dude, we were just talking and I don’t do that with anybody. Like (laughs) I’m not like that but he’s just a great dude.”
