BKFC Spain was one for the books, with a ‘Fight of the Year’ contender emerging from the main event.

The Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship found its Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar moment, the iconic and epic three-round fight that would save the UFC when it was in financial trouble in 2005.

Of course, that’s not to say that BKFC needed saving, as the world’s fastest-growing combat sports promotion is doing just fine, having debuted on DAZN and in Spain with its co-owner Conor McGregor to promote the action in Marbella, including the epic headliner.

Conor McGregor doubles purses and bonuses for BKFC fighters after all-out war

The vacant lightweight title fight between Franco Tenaglia and Tony “Loco” Soto is among the best BKFC has to offer. Both men put everything they had on the line to go home champions, engaging in the ultimate brawl over the course of five rounds that Soto thought he won three of.

“In the third round, when I was crushing this man, he stepped on my foot while going back and clubbed me and I slipped and the referee called it a knockdown. It was just ridiculous,” he said. Soto told MMA Knockout after BKFC Spain. “I’m super sour about it because I was crushing him. And even if you want to give him that knockdown and give him – he got the first round, it was clean, it was beautiful. If you give him the first round and the third, I had the second, the fourth and the fifth.

“So it just doesn’t make sense for a judge’s scorecard to be a draw. That’s the only other way I would look at it…”

Both men were battered and bruised in a battle that earned a standing ovation from the crowd and from McGregor and co. At ringside, Tenaglia and Soto would both see the final bell, with the durable Tenaglia ultimately getting his hand raised by majority decision, becoming Argentina’s first bare-knuckle champion.

Officially, Tenaglia recorded two knockdowns in rounds 1 and 3 (which Soto called a slip) while Soto dropped him once in round 2. Soto had Tenaglia beat in the striking numbers with his 352 punches. fist against 234 for Tenaglia.

The fight was so close that Soto said officials approached him about a sudden death round after the final bell, a sixth round to determine the lightweight champion between him and the Argentine – a bell to which he would have answered if it had rung.

“So the doctor came to us and he asked me personally, ‘Hey, would you be able to do a sudden death round, a sixth round?’ And I said, “What, huh? Like, I didn’t understand what was happening. I said, “Yeah, let’s do it.” and we think we have another round coming and now they have the scorecards So, who knows, I don’t think his face could have continued to be honest.

But, just like Forrest Griffin vs. Stephan Bonnar I in the UFC, Soto’s legendary fight at BKFC wouldn’t benefit from an extra round, with the judges not seeing it his way.

“I’m my own biggest critic and I feel like I did everything I needed to do to get this win. Worst case scenario, at least a draw.”

“I think that’s the only thing that makes sense right now,” Soto said of a potential immediate rematch with Tenaglia, given how exciting their first fight was. “I went out there, waited a year to finally fight for the title. I was 6-0 for a whole year and waited for this. I went all the way in another “So the least they can do is come here and let’s have a rematch on American soil.”

BKFC’s first main event on DAZN was surely effective, so much so that founder David Feldman accepted a special bonus for Tenaglia and Soto for giving the sport of bare-knuckle boxing one of the best fights of all. time.

McGregor upped the stakes even further, taking Feldman’s mic after the fight to announce that he would also double their initial purses.

“It’s a beautiful thing,” Soto said of McGregor doubling his money on fight night. “We come out here and we risk our lives and limbs for the fans. I think it’s the least they can do for someone like me who always puts on a show and makes that promise.”

“If you watch the press conference, I said, ‘Marbella, I promise you I’ll give you the best bare-knuckle fight you’ve ever seen…’ I kept my word.”

Moving closer to 2025 after a successful October, tenacious title challenger Tony “Loco” Soto says his No. 1 goal is to win the BKFC World Championship – another chance for gold against Franco Tenaglia.

“I just want to keep chasing my dreams and show everyone in this world, including my family, it doesn’t matter how many times you get knocked down, it’s all about how many times you get up and keep moving forward .”

BKFC Spain Results and Highlights