former IBF junior welterweight and WBA welterweight champion Paulie “Magic Man” Malignaggi will face 5-3 bare knuckle veteran Tyler Goodjohn at BKB 45 on September 6 at the Ice Arena in Bristol, England. In June, Malignaggi announced that he signed a three-fight deal with BKB in hopes of working his way to a title shot and becoming a two-sport world champion by capturing the historic Police Gazette Diamond Belt. Goodjohn, who made his return to BKB in April with a win over Joe Smith in Cardiff, Wales, holds a 13-6 record and was the English Super Lightweight Champion as a professional boxer, and a National ABA Champion as an amateur.
Originating in South Florida with backyard legend Dada 5000, whose backyard fights gained worldwide popularity online, BKB was founded to harness the excitement of bare knuckle fighting into a more structured product for a wider, more mainstream audience. Since 2015, BYB has worked diligently to grow the reach of bare knuckle on both a domestic and international level, hosting events in Wyoming, Mississippi, Florida, South Carolina, Louisiana, New Mexico, Colorado, England, Wales and Dubai, and is continuing to work with athletic commissions throughout the United States and globally to expand the fanbase growing sport of bare knuckle fighting.
In the past two years, BKB (originally BYB) has purchased the UK-based BKB, the world’s oldest professional bare knuckle boxing company, and in doing so merged the organizations to create the largest bare knuckle boxing company in the world in terms of roster, library and distribution; ushered in ethical and legalized gambling to the sport; acquired the rights to the historic and prestigious Police Gazette Diamond Belt which now serves as the Bare Knuckle Boxing World Championship; and brought bare knuckle boxing to lineal television on both sides of the Atlantic, including the recent deal with VICE TV and in the UK with TalkSport.
