BKFC President David Feldman officially welcomed Paige VanZant to the Bare Knuckle family today. The press conference, which went down at American Top Team in Coconut Creek, Florida, also featured BKFC fighters Thiago Alves and Hector Lombard.
Also in attendance in the audience were Shannon Briggs and Anthony Johnson, who explained his decision to return to fighting saying:
“Honestly, I missed the sport, you know what I mean? I missed the sport, I miss competing. So, I knew at one point, I was against guys coming back from retirement. You know, you usually see them get mopped up. You know, BJ Penn came back and got mopped up. I’ve seen everybody that came back out of retirement get mopped up.”
PVZ quotes
On signing with BKFC:
“So, you know, I looked at the organization. I saw what they stood for. And, you know, in my MMA career you know, I was very accomplished—I was in the UFC for over for over six years. And now I feel like it’s the perfect opportunity to open that next chapter. And it’s not necessarily a move backwards for me to move laterally. It’s a whole new obstacle. It’s a new opportunity for me. And that’s what really excites me. And it’s, you know, not the veteran that Thiago is in the UFC, But I am a veteran. I didn’t become repetitive. Where is this? I’m so excited. And like, the nerves are already setting up what it’s going to be like on my first fight. I’m excited for that.”
On her skill set for BKFC:
“I’ve always thought of myself as a striker. That’s where my passion is. My entire career wrestling has always been something I knew I needed to work on but didn’t necessarily want to. With this, I wake up every single day and I’m like, I can’t wait to strike. I can’t wait to work with my coaches. I can’t wait to get better at striking and additionally, the love for boxing. I also have a very good Muay Thai background so being able to do the clinch work in BKFC I think will be huge advantage for me. I love my clinch game. That’s something I’ve been working for the past three or four years, working strictly Muay Thai. So, I do feel I may be able to bring that in. You have a lot of success with that.”
Thiago Alves quotes
On why he decided to fight for BKFC:
“You know, I wanted to do something for such a long time. You know, it became kind of I already knew what to do when I get there on Monday, you know so I went through the whole process. So, I wasn’t as excited as I am right now to compete in this new sport this bad ass organization. I’m excited to get up there and, you know, throw knuckles. I think that’s going to be exciting.”
On his upcoming fight with Phil Baroni:
“Well, I feel I’m going to knock him the f out. That’s the plan you know that’s always going to be the plan. And I have 2 minutes – 1 minute of rest. I know it’s going to be a little bit of adjustment because it’s going to be a sprint of two minutes but being used to five fifteen minutes of high pace and then you cut it down to two minutes with one-minute rest in between. Let’s go. And so, I don’t know how it’s going to play out. This is the reality of it. I know I’m going to be ready to do that in ten minutes. And I know Phil is going to come right at you. So, I know someone is going to get knocked out.”
Hector Lombard quotes
On his upcoming fight with Kendall Grove:
“In this fight I am going to make a statement I have to go through Kendall Grove I feel great Kendall grove is a little taller than me, so I am going to pick him apart with body shots first and then go to the head.”
On advice for new fighters PVZ and Thiago Alves:
“I’m sure they’re going to do great. It’s like I say, it’s all mental and they already have the little things they’ve been through so many UFC fights so many other promotions so it’s just like a smooth transition because once you have a fighter and you put in the work, that’s it. And they already had that. You know, they have the strength. Fighters are very unusual human beings. I’m a hundred percent sure they are going to do very well.”
The real action starts at 54 minutes into the video when former MMA Masters teammates Luis “Baboon” Palomino and Jim Alers confronted each other after the press conference. As you may remember, Palomino and Jim Alers were scheduled to fight at BKFC 11 for the 155-pound title. Alers pulled out because his coach tested positive for COVID-19 and his father is very ill. However, Palomino still questions the integrity of Alers and believes he should have fought anyway and was using excuses instead of stepping into the squared circle.
BKFC president David Feldman says he hope to announce this fight later this year. One thing for sure these two always bring in and it will be a beautiful bloody fight when they finally do compete.
Watch Must Love MMA’s interview with Jim Alers
Check out Must Love MMA speaking with Luis Palomino
BKFC 12 goes down live on Fri. Sept. 11th from Daytona, FL & will include a special tribute show in memory to all of our brave men and women.
