Last night’s BKFC interim title fight has been overturned.
BKFC 78 went down from Hollywood, Florida, on Saturday night with two titles on the line. In the main event, Leonardo Perdomo called out BKFC Heavyweight Champion Ben Rothwell after his TKO win over Arnold Adams.
The co-headliner featured an interim flyweight championship between Andrew Strode and cut man-turned-fighter Gee Perez, which was supposed to determine champion John Dodson’s next challenger.
However, a horrific injury got in the way of that as Strode split open the left ear of Perez with his punches.
After the doctor evaluated the partially torn ear, the referee put a stop to the contest and the bout was ruled a no-contest rather than a doctor’s stoppage TKO, with Strode not getting his title until the day after.
Andrew Strode is new BKFC champion after commission overturned no-contest to TKO win
BKFC boss David Feldman had mentioned at the BKFC 78 post-fight press conference he would be talking to the Florida State Athletic Commission about why the interim title fight ended in a no-contest.
Strode caused the fight-ending injury, and in most cases, he would’ve been awarded the TKO stoppage.
On Sunday evening, the BKFC announced that the Florida commission had overturned the no-contest result to a win for Strode, the newly-crowned BKFC interim bantamweight champion.
“After further review, the Florida State Athletic Commission has overturned the no contest in the Strode vs Perez bout, and has awarded the win and Interim Flyweight Title to Andrew Strode!” BKFC announced.
Colorado’s Strode improves to a perfect 4-0 with the BKFC title win.
Andrew Strode could unify title against UFC veteran John Dodson next
While there’s potential for a rematch with Perez, given how close their fight was and the doctor stoppage, Strode could be looking at a different fight altogether against the champion John Dodson.
Dodson gave UFC flyweight ‘GOAT’ Demetrious Johnson a run for his money in a 2013 title fight and a decade later, ‘The Magician’ is still fighting the best fighters in the world. Dodson recently claimed he’d KO the current UFC flyweight champion Alexandre Pantoja.
At the stacked Champions Summit press conference on Thursday, Dodson called the newly-created interim title ‘stupid’, saying he would have defended the title against Strode or Perez.
The 17-fight UFC veteran is undefeated in the BKFC with three wins and a draw, which happened in his latest title defense against pro boxer Dagoberto Aguero at BKFC 59 in March 2024.
Dodson would undoubtedly be the biggest fight of Andrew Strode’s young career.