In his second bare-knuckle fight, Thiago Alves became a BKFC champion.
The former UFC title contender had to endure a tough opening round to then storm back and put opponent Uly Diaz down on the canvas three times in the third round before doctors waved off the fight to prevent further damage.
The official time of the stoppage was 2:00 at the end of round three as Alves claimed the middleweight title while moving to 2-0 in his career with BKFC.
“He’s a monster so I knew he was going to start strong,” Alves said after the fight. “I was taking a jab from him a lot. After I timed that jab, I started to go to work.
“I’m the king of this sh*t. Chin down, shoulders up, and hands in your f*cking face.”
Diaz was on the attack from the start of the opening round, showing no fear while trading shots early. Though Diaz is well known for his record-breaking three-second knockout, he was measured and technical with his combinations while still being wary of the power coming back from Alves.
With a cut opened over his eyebrow, Alves got more aggressive as he looked to turn the tide, but Diaz made him pay for it with a perfectly placed counter left straight that put the Brazilian down on the mat.
Alves got back to his feet and invited Diaz to begin exchanging punches with him as both fighters started swinging huge, heavy shots at each other.
Almost as if he was fighting angry, Alves was absolutely head hunting in third round as he started blasting away at Diaz with a barrage of punches that were consistently finding a home. Finally a blistering right hand came screaming down the pipe with Alves putting Diaz down on the ground.
While Diaz was able to get back up again, he was still rattled and Alves went for the kill.
With Alves in hot pursuit, he began launching bombs at Diaz including some nasty overhand punches as well as powerful uppercuts. That resulted in two more knockdowns as Diaz was struggling to stay on his feet for more than a few seconds at a time.
Diaz made it back to his corner at the end of the round but it didn’t take long for the fight to be stopped after he slumped down, still feeling the aftereffects of Alves’ punches.
The win crowned Alves as a BKFC champion with another impressive performance.