Move over, “BMF” belt. A new combat sports title gimmick is about to take center stage.
When former UFC standouts Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez compete in the BKFC 56 headliner next month, a belt will be on the line in the form of the promotion’s newly created “King of Violence” championship.
During Thursday’s BKFC 56 news conference in Salt Lake City, BKFC president David Feldman said the promotion settled on a design for the belt after receiving votes from 47,000 fans who picked from three designs. The belt, which Feldman said won’t be ready for another week, will be awarded to the Perry-Alvarez winner.
“I’m happy about it, and I’m happy to be able to do something a little different up here,” Feldman said. “This is a violent sport. We’ve run to it. We say what it is: It’s a brutal sport. It’s not more dangerous than anything else out there, but you have to be a different kind of person to fight bare-knuckle fighting, and these guys are. They’re different, and that’s why they’re fighting for the ‘King of Violence’ championship.”
Mike Perry and Eddie Alvarez traded body shots at their first #BKFC56 faceoff
pic.twitter.com/j3pTPOTTLR
— MMA Junkie (@MMAJunkie) November 9, 2023
The “King of Violence” title is different, but it’s nothing new. Back in November 2019, the UFC created a “BMF” title belt especially for a fight between Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz at UFC 244, which Masvidal won. That figured to be the only time the “BMF” belt would be at stake, but the UFC brought it back earlier this year for the UFC 291 headliner between Justin Gaethje and Dustin Poirier, which Gaethje claimed by knockout. Now there’s talk of Gaethje possibly defending it against Max Holloway.
Feldman said BKFC’s “King of Violence” title “is probably gonna be a one-and-done thing for us,” but you never know. For now, he’s got two masters of violence in Perry and Alvarez who are the right guys for such a title.
“We have two violent guys – a Philly guy and a Florida guy – that are gonna collide in the squared circle on Dec. 2 here in Salt Lake City,” Feldman said. “It’s gonna be an epic, epic night.”
BKFC 56 will mark Perry’s fourth time competing for the promotion. He’s 3-0 in his previous appearances, with wins over Julian Lane, Michael Page, and most recently a second-round TKO of ex-UFC champ Luke Rockhold this past April.
That same night, Alvarez, a former UFC and Bellator champion, made his bare-knuckle debut and won a split decision over Chad Mendes.