Since its inception, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has always had a public relations uphill climb. By promoting a combat sport centered around bare-knuckle boxing, they were confronted with the same claims of barbarism that the Ultimate Fighting Championship also dealt with in its early years. Like their mixed martial arts counterpart, BKFC has employed different strategies to ward off negative narratives, clean up the image of the sport and grow their brand. Much of it has worked, and their latest strategy is a clever tactic that banks on the brand-building sex appeal of some familiar and pretty faces from the UFC.
Read the full piece at the link below. Agree? Disagree? Let’s hear your thoughts Underground mob.
https://www.mixedmartialarts.com/editorial/bkfc-and-the-fighting-selfie-stars/
It’s short-sighted to sign a bunch of Instagram women that have popularity and objectively low skills compared to peers.
They may bring in some viewers to see the freak show but how many will become repeat customers after seeing outings like Paige’s fight?
It also sounds like Paige’s debut didn’t even sell very well. Paying the money they’re supposedly paying to people like Paige is a losing proposition.
I don’t wish for them to fail but this isn’t a path to long term success.
I recently saw a YouTuber I enjoy who gave advice on being successful there using his own experience where he started out trying to make these viral videos and they were trash and got him nowhere. He later realized if he just made solid content consistently that it would build and people would come and they have and he’s been very successful with it.
BKFC is trying to make viral shit and it’s not going to last that way.
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That is a very fair take on it. The YouTuber point is also good but it’s also hard to compare the two forms of content. The fight game is very weird at times, and we see how when you lack have world-class talent, freak show or popularity contests can make up the difference. That’s why I mentioned Triller. Maybe they flame out eventually, but selling PPV numbers like they have, and based around the talent they have does say something about the fight audience and what they will pay for. UFC does not break a million PPV buys often and when they do they have to load the events up. In the end, you definitely may be right, but I still give them credit because it’s a smart business move. Because they could sign someone better like that Russian fighter they also added. Question is, will people care? And if they don’t care youre not going anywhere. Have to make them care first and BKFC is still a fairly new brand.
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It’s tough as you outline and will be interesting to see how it shakes out.
In my mind, people that love the freak show aspect of onlyfans boxing and triller tend to have shorter attention spans. I can see them getting bored of this model if they don’t get roped into the sport and the real competition and moving on to whoever has the next great viral idea for entertainment.
Very hard to say how this will go. I don’t fault them getting sales now however they can, but there’s only so much equity in the onlyfans fight team and a few lacklustre losses will erase that fast. And Jake Paul/Triller are one punch away from losing all of that intrigue. They’ll have tons of money to count still, but no more million-buy PPVs.
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Very true. I will say, the one thing BKFC has going for it is that they really are trying to find and develop bare-knuckle stars. I don’t know what the hell Triller is doing other than an absolute money grab. BKFC wants to be the UFC of that sport and when you have those names like Paige that brings new fans in, the hope is that they discover other talents on the roster that make them dig the sport and want to see those people again too. That’s always at least the theory of the freakshow/popularity strategy. Come for the name and stay for the real talent.
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