The Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships is entering new territory.
The promotion announced Tuesday that it will make its debut in Kansas on March 14 when it holds BKFC 11 at INTRUST Bank Arena in Wichita. BKFC has previously put on shows in Wyoming, Mississippi, and Florida, as well as Cancun, Mexico.
Three names have been announced for the event so far, Olympic bronze medalist Nico Hernandez, longtime Bellator veteran David Rickels, and heavyweight Sam Shewmaker. Their opponents are still to be named.
Hernandez, 24, represented the United States at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and holds a 7-0 pro boxing record with four wins by KO/TKO. This will be a home date for him as he was born and raised in Wichita.
This will be Rickels’s BKFC debut after making 23 appearances for Bellator, a company record. The 31-year-old went 15-6 with two no contests during his Bellator run and his pro record sits at 21-6 (2 NC) after a submission loss to Yaroslav Amosov in his most recent outing this past August. Rickels hails from Derby, Kan.
“We’ve been working with Commissioner Adam Roorbach to bring BKFC to Kansas, and on March 14 we will make our long-awaited debut,” BKFC founder and President David Feldman said in a release. “It’s not only exciting to be in this state with a great commission and great fight fans, but we have the two most popular and most decorated fighters in Kansas competing on this card.”
BKFC 11 will air on pay-per-view for the price of $29.99 with tickets for the event going on sale this Thursday.