An ESPN commentator got their hand raised on the BKFC 78 prelims.
It’s been a massive week for the BKFC, with many announcements being made by Conor McGregor at the wild Champions Summit press conference on Thursday, including the $25M open-weight tournament and new ex-UFC signings.
BKFC 78 ends the week’s festivities with two title fights on the line, including an interim flyweight championship to determine champ John Dodson’s next challenger.
The undercard featured a MMA fighter-turned-commentator, but it was hardly his first rodeo in BKFC.
‘I’m out’ … ESPN’s Gaston Reyno makes opponent give up for bloody TKO stoppage
Uruguay’s Gaston Reyno has been fighting for over a decade.
A decade before he entered the broadcast booth, the ESPN KnockOut commentator made his MMA debut back in 2013. Reyno has a 9-2 record as a pro in MMA and improved to 2-0 as a bareknuckle boxer at BKFC 78 when he took on lightweight Milton Volter.
In round 3 of their scheduled five, Reyno had Volter badly bloodied with a nasty cut open around his eye.
After eating a body shot from Reyno, Volter used the time on the break to wipe his bloody face. Seeing his blood-soaked fingertips, Volter looked and motioned to the referee. The fighter crossed his arms to give up and the referee did, calling it a TKO stoppage for the dominant Reyno.
No follow-up punches were needed for the fighter-turned-commentator.
Reyno started working for ESPN in 2020 after walking away from MMA competition in 2019. Reyno went 2-2 in Bellator MMA.
Commentator-turned-fighter lost BKFC debut last year
Ben ‘The Bane’ Davis is the opposite of Gaston Reyno.
A 25-year-old multi-sport commentator out of Arizona, Davis made it his mission to fight in multiple disciplines across combat sports, including boxing, jiu-jitsu, Karate Combat (promotion), and bareknuckle boxing.
Davis went 1-3 overall and lost his BKFC debut against Oscar Willis at BKFC Spain last October.
With no real combat sports background behind him, Davis was knocked down multiple times en route to a first-round TKO stoppage. He did share a special moment with BKFC part-owner and UFC superstar Conor McGregor, though.