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BKFC 41 could be the most noteworthy bare-knuckle boxing event in recent memory. At the co-main event was a clash between former UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez and ex-title contender Chad Mendes. And at the headliner was a barnburner between another former UFC title holder in Luke Rockhold who fought Mike Perry.
UFC superstar Conor McGregor even made an appearance and showed some support for the organization. However, BKFC 41 apparently failed to hit the target, something organization president David Feldman recently discussed.
Feldman explains BKFC 41’s missed projections
In his recent interview with Jimmy Smith for Sirius XM, Feldman said he is happy with the final numbers of BKFC 41. However, he felt the event could’ve done better if it weren’t for more than 700,000 illegal streams.
“We anticipated to do more pay-per-views than we did,” he said (transcript by MMA Fighting). “We still did good. We did six-figures in pay-per-views, a little north of six figures, which was very, very good for us.
“We projected to do almost double that though, and actually I just got a report in today that says they found 734,000 illegal streams from that event.”
Despite the revenue lost from piracy, Feldman remains content with the outcome and likely isn’t chasing down these streamers like how other rival promotions did.
“I’m not even pissed off. That’s 734,000 people that watched this event, on top of the people that bought it. We had north of 1 million people in the United States watch this event live. Unbelievable for us.”
“Now we just have to worry about how we’re going to combat that going forward when we need to monetize it more. We didn’t have to monetize it for that event, we just had to get it out there. We had to have people watching it, we had to have people talking about it.”
Big projections for BKFC in the near future
Without giving specifics, Feldman is expecting big things for the organization in the short term. He is already looking towards a big fight towards the later part of the year and only sees more progress for the coming years.
“We’re putting together a superfight here in September, hopefully that’s going to be even bigger than the one we just did in Denver. We want to keep up the momentum.
“I don’t want to be the promotion where it’s like, ‘There’s only been one promotion and I think it’s BKFC that ever did anything like this before, but are they going to continue or are they going to be that one-hit wonder?’ We won’t be that one-hit wonder.
“We’re throwing everything we have at this thing and we think we can have a hell of a run for BKFC in the next three to five years.”
The recently-concluded BKFC 43 was likewise a notable card, which featured 51-year-old veteran Houston Alexander against Jeremy Smith in the headliner. Alexander won via decision to keep his undefeated bare-knuckle boxing record intact at 4-0.
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