BKFC has always had it’s home operations based in Philadelphia but relatively recently getting the green light to throw bare-knuckle cards in that city in 2025 has produced some incredible results for the company with their BKFC Philly series so far. Appearing on Bowks Talking Bouts, BKFC commentator Sean Wheelock covered several subjects with a particular focus on the multi-event run that Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has had in the Pennsylvania city.
BKFC KnuckleMania 5 broke an attendance record in the city for indoor Philadelphia fight cards and is the largest fight crowd that city had seen in over half a century. In September of 1952, Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott had their first fight at Municipal Stadium which has held the Philly attendance record for a combat sports event since that date with over 40,000 live and in-person. The fifth instalment of BKFC’s tentpole event which featured a headlining attraction of Eddie Alvarez clashing with Jeremy Stephens produced a sold out BKFC Philly crowd where just shy of 18,000 fans were live in attendance at the Wells Fargo Center for the night of gloveless combat.
When discussing BKFC Philly with the Wells Fargo effort as well as the focus on the 2300 Arena aka the old ECW arena where the promotion returns on July 25th, Wheelock said,
“So it took a change in leadership. Greg Sirb who, my wife is English and there’s a great English expression, she would say he’s been there since the year dot. Which means he’s been there a very long time, right. Greg Sirb had been there from the year dot. Greg Sirb was not a fan of bare knuckle. Although interestingly he showed up even though he’s retired at BKFC KnuckleMania 5 [laughs] in Philadelphia. But I would not know his motivations for that. He seemed like he enjoyed himself. Greg Sirb was a person who was adamant in keeping bare knuckle out of his state of Philadelphia when he ran the commission, he retired, he was successful in doing so.”
“Fantastic guy named Ed Kunkle, one of the best regulators in the country who used to be a deputy in New York, took over that job and now it happened. That’s really how it works in regulatory world. You have to have someone in a high position being the executive director, chairman of the commission, leuiteneant governor of your state, governor of the state to want it and if there’s someone who doesn’t want it, it’s probably not going to happen. So in Greg Sirb, you had someone who did not want bare knuckle and in Ed Kunkle you had someone who did and Ed Kunkle has been great.”
BKFC Philly’s massive entrance into the market in 2025
Further delving into the historical significance of the massive BKFC Philly effort in January, Wheelock continued, “I was happy we were able to reward that state and that athletic commission with 17,800 paying customers on the Pennsylvania debut for bare knuckle back in January in Philadelphia. As you said yeah, it was the largest combat sports crowd [in Philadelphia] since Jersey Joe Walcott-Rocky Marciano, 1951… Which is unbelievable to me. Bigger than the UFCs that have been there, bigger than the Joe Frazier fights, but we did.”
“It was legitimate, there was not papering of that house, there weren’t comped tickets… So many celebrities, so many important people in state government, so many people who needed that access to be right in the front row. It was a really incredible night. We’ve had some pretty special, amazing nights in BKFC. But right now through I believe 126 shows, that for me is number one.”