As Julian Fernandez prepares to defend his super cruiserweight crown against Dan Podmore, it truly illustrates where BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing is now at internationally, per the promotion’s CEO.
David Tetreault is the referenced BKB individual in question and the promotional figurehead of BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing spoke on this Tijuana foray on September 19th amid fight week proceedings for BKB 58 in Miami.
After enthusiastically breaking down the Florida fight card on August 29th but then turning his attention to the promotion’s next chapter in their unfurling story, Tetreault said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Then we’re going to be opening up Mexico, September 19th. We just signed a partnership with Zanfer Boxing. They’re going to be our co-promoter throughout Mexico and Latin America. Helping us operationally, helping us with fighters and their cards, working with us on marketing, and that’s going to be a hell of an event. With Julian Fernandez defending his title in his hometown, Tijuana, that’s a big, big step. So, a lot of different pivots within the organization to really take it and push it on a worldwide stage.”
BKB 59 is creating a lot of buzz in Mexico amid organization’s purpose driven expansion, per Tetreault
At BKB 59, the unbeaten champion in Fernandez will embark on his first title defense and he enters the Mighty Trigon with all first round finishes. Standing in his way is a man who aims to become a five time, four division champion in Podmore. Notably infrastructure and logistical considerations for this inaugural card in the country were provided by Zanfer Boxing who are the Queensberry Rules gold standard in Mexico to many.
When touching on the machinations of the matchup and how much of a subsequent ripple effect it can generate in this fresh market for the company, Tetreault stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“it’s an amazing fight. It’s a real fight. When Zanfer kind of looks at the top of the card and everything that they’ve been building with Mel Valenzuela, our matchmaker throughout the card, the level of excitement that Fernando Beltran [Zanfer’s figurehead] has for bare knuckle. There’s other big networks down in Mexico that are already contacting us based on our now association with Zanfer. They know that we’re very, very serious about what we’re doing. They know that we’re not playing games. So, we’re not here to do one-offs and we’re not here to just get headlines of ‘I’m doing a fight here or there.’ Every single thing that we do is purpose-driven. There’s a reason for it. There’s a strategy behind it. Whether it’s signing a fighter, choosing a venue, or allowing a sponsor in. We’re loading up with sponsors now, but they have to be the right sponsors.”