On Saturday at the Topeka SportZone, Organized Chaos XVII took place and while the fight had 18 events on the card including boxing, kickboxing and mixed martial arts, it was the one bare knuckle fight on the card that is set to be remembered the most. Bare knuckle fighting, a sport dating back centuries and made famous by John L. Sullivan in the 1800s, was recently legalized in Kansas and sets the stage for a new era in combat sports for the state.
The winner was Richard Carmack, a Midwest Heavyweight Champion with 15 wins under his belt and 12 by knockout. Carmack stopped his opponent Travis Fulton fifteen seconds into the third round! Fulton, a veteran of 225 MMA wins and 25 boxing wins with 23 wins by knockout, had this to say on his Instagram Page:
“Won round 1. Round 2 was even other than a slip. Round 3 I decided to walk straight into a left hand. Got some stitches and didn’t break my hand. Not bad for a 42 year old man who didn’t train at all and gave up nearly 200 lbs. Good chance I’ll be in more bare knuckle boxing matches next year.”
Bare knuckle boxing has seen tremendous growth in the USA thanks to one stubborn promoter who refused to give up. BKFC President David Feldman made it his personal mission to get the sport legalized and sanctioned over a decade ago. BKFC held their first event in 2018 in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
