Author: Dylan Bowker

Alessio Sakara is preparing for his bare-knuckle boxing debut next week and his upcoming opponent has taken time to offer up his analysis of this looming matchup. As a recent guest on Bare Knuckle Bowker, Erick Lozano touched on several subjects ahead of his clash with Alessio Sakara at BKFC Philly on July 25th. While Sakara has fought in bare-knuckle MMA and secured a win in that discipline under the Gamebred banner last November, this will be the Italian MMA legend’s first foray into the world of BKFC.

Essentially right out of the gate at the beginning of the conversation, Lozano said,

“They had offered; my manager had talked about the [Alessio] Sakara fight a couple weeks ago and then they said no. I’m not sure why but then they called me back earlier this week. I think Monday, Monday morning, and said if I still was interested and I said let’s run it. Yeah, been getting ready for this fight. I’m excited, he’s a big name, he’s making his debut for BKFC. Unfortunate for him, I’ve already fought the best that BKFC has to offer and I’m excited to welcome him into the circled ring.”

Alessio Sakara and the theorized reason why the BKFC contract wasn’t signed right away

When expounding upon why he felt like the Sakara camp at first did not accept the fight but then ended up signing the BKFC bout agreement, Lozano stated,

“I think they were trying to get him another opponent. Somebody that didn’t have so much experience but I guess the other opponent didn’t want to take the fight. But I’m always ready to fight anybody. Doesn’t matter who they put in front of me. So for me it’s a privilege to be able to go against the best in the world. That’s what I strive to do and that’s when I step up and excel. So I’m looking forward to stepping in the circled ring with him.”

Also, when touching upon what a victory here over someone with an ample amount of combat cache could do for his own career prospects, Lozano quipped,

“Beating Alessio [Sakara] would put me right back in the mix and hopefully in the top ten again. So that’s what I’m looking to get into. Get back into the top ten and move forward toward the goal of being a title contender again.”

Shara Magomedov prepares to return to the cage next week and he has been getting in some great rounds with one of the featured fighters on this weekend’s UFC pay-per-view offering. As a recent guest on Bowks Talking Bouts, Robert Valentin touched on multiple topics leading into his battle with Ateba Gautier at UFC 318 on Saturday, July 19th.

Valentin has engaged in cross training efforts at Bangtao Muay Thai and Syndicate MMA (when out in Las Vegas). While getting in work in Thailand at Bangtao, Shara ‘Bullet’ is someone that Valentin has sharpened his tools with. When discussing some of the sparring rounds he has had with Shara Magomedov in recent times, Valentin said,

“Yeah, so Shara is coming to Phuket also already for a long time. As people know, he’s mainly a striker. So that’s a good place for him and in Bangtao, we get some good sparring in together. Yeah, working together for our upcoming fights. He’s fighting the week after me in Abu Dhabi. So it was perfect timing to kind of put our camps together and get in there and strike a little bit.”

Shara Magomedov’s upcoming test in Abu Dhabi

While Valentin prepares to do battle on the 19th, Shara Magomedov will have his own in-cage assignment on July 26th. At Etihad Arena in Abu Dhabi, Magomedov returns to action in an intriguing middleweight matchup against former multi-division TKO champion Marc-Andre Barriault.

Barriault recently snapped a three fight losing skid and did so in emphatic fashion on home soil. The Quebec-born fighter secured a knockout victory less than ninety seconds into his bout against Bruno Silva at UFC 315 in Montreal. For Shara ‘Bullet’, Magomedov aims to rebound from the first professional loss of his MMA career against Michael ‘Venom’ Page on February 1st. The native of Russia aims to redicret the narrative to how fans were talking about him when Magomedov secured a stunning double spinning backfist finish in the second stanza against Armen Petrosyan at UFC 308 last October.

Some are unsure as to who the next opponent for UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko will be but a former member of Team Alexa Grasso has a defined interest in seeing Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili. Appearing on Bowks Talking Bouts ahead of his UFC 318 clash with Ateba Gautier, Robert Valentin touched on several subjects including his TUF tenure which gave him a path toward the octagon.

With Shevchenko serving as the opposing coach to Grasso during season 32 of The Ultimate Fighter, the two flyweights went on to fight with Shevchenko reclaiming her crown and then defending it against Manon Fiorot in May at UFC 315. Valentin was a member of Team Grasso when Alexa Grasso was still the reigning flyweight champion with Grasso also competing at UFC 315, losing to now-number one contender Natalia Silva. It would seem like Silva could possibly be next for Shevchenko considering the divisional meritocracy of it. But a superfight with dominant strawweight titleholder Zhang Weili has been something fans have long wanted to see.

As someone who also trains out of Bangtao Muay Thai as Weili does and when asked if we will get Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili next, Valentin said,

“I really hope so. I mean for the women’s MMA, this is the fight to make right now. Undoubtedly Zhang Weili, in my opinion, one of the most entertaining women in MMA ever. The way; how she fights is I think levels above what other women can show in the octagon. On the other side, Valentina is like maybe coming to the end of her career now and she also deserves big fights that will be remembered. I kind of feel like in her last fights, she kind of blasted through her competition.”

Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili thoughts continued by Valentin

Further articulating his thoughts on the machinations of this possible MMA dream matchup with Valentina Shevchenko vs. Zhang Weili, Valentin continued,

“Those fights they don’t really give her the value in terms of fans remembering her name as what she would deserve. A fight like Valentina versus Zhang Weili, that’s a historical fight. That’s going to bring a huge amount of fans to the sport. I mean China, big market. Russian speaking fans, huge market. Two of the best women to ever do it in MMA. There is no better matchup to make and both of these women deserve that spotlight and the fans deserve an entertaining fight which undoubtedly they will bring to the octagon.”

Ben Askren’s recovery timeline leading up to recently receiving a double lung transplant has gripped the combat sports world with one of Bellator’s most tenured broadcasters offering up his thoughts on these recent health scares the former Bellator champion has been dealing with. Appearing on Bowks Talking Bouts, Sean Wheelock touched on his personal history with the two time Hodge trophy winner with both men interacting in Bellator from 2010 onward and hitting it off right away per the commentator.

There were several connections between the two that informed that bond with Askren graduating from the University of Missouri where Wheelock’s mother went, ‘Funky’ coached at Arizona State where Wheelock himself went, and Askren’s wife Amy grew up one suburb away from Wheelock as well. Also beyond calling multiple Askren fights in Bellator MMA, Wheelock served as one of the commentators for Askren’s boxing bout with Jake Paul. When touching upon the health issues that Askren has faced in recent times, Wheelock said,

“It’s been awful. It’s been something that I’ve been thinking about daily. I was saying to my wife you know here’s a guy, not just one of the greatest welterweights in MMA history, this guy was an Olympian and he owns a wrestling school. So it’s not like someone who has let themselves go. Ben has always lived a super clean life. The guy is on the mats everyday working with kids. It’s just dumbfounding that he’s had those health problems. To see that video and that he’s talking was wonderful because it’s been something where I’m not going to bug his lovely wife Amy Askren. I’m certainly not texting Ben on his phone ‘hey, how are you doing?’.”

“So I’m following along with everybody else within the fight community. There’s that kind of that class of 2010 Bellator people where there’s still kind of a kinship. It would be like the Joe Warren’s in that group just talking and asking about what’s happening. But to see Ben recovered and actually speaking and he looked and sounded like Ben was fantastic. Because I’m waiting along with everyone ‘oh my god, what is going to happen?’ Then you hear double lung transplant. It’s just truly one of the most unbelievable stories. How is this possible with Ben Askren? The guy is forty years old.”

Ben Askren receives support from infamous UFC rival

Ben Askren has been receiving support and encouragement from many within the combat sports world, even beyond people that he already had positive rapport with prior to his recent health issues. In July 2019, Ben Askren and Jorge Masvidal stepped into the cage at UFC 239 to do battle in one of the more heated, personal fights in recent memory but in July 2025, the latter stands in solidarity with the former.

In the wake of Askren’s severe pneumonia complications and what he has gone through the last couple of months, Masvidal took to his personal Instagram page to offer support to Askren. As he addressed his former opponent on his personal social media, Masvidal stated [via MMA Fighting].

“What’s up, my brother? I know we were rivals in the ring. I just want to say, God bless you. And when I get back in America, if I can come shake your hand, brother, and just say a prayer with you, it will be amazing, man. I know you’re going to pull through this because you’re a f*cking warrior, brother. God bless. Your story is crazy inspirational what you’re going through right now. God bless you, and I’m hoping to get back and just be able to shake your hand. I hope all is well, brother.”

As a relatively recent guest on Bare Knuckle Bowker, Jessica Eye expounded upon her first win in gloveless combat at BKFC Texas and how she came to return to combat sports after her UFC retirement a few years ago. When initially asked if everything in this bare-knuckle debut played out relative to her preconceived notions or if there were some surprising facets from her BKFC 76 effort, Jessica Eye said,

“A little bit of both but the hand wraps are wild. It’s so wild, it’s like nothing [laughs]. Gee [Perez], their cut guy, is great, he’s absolutely awesome and he does a great job. But I can’t wait to perfect that wrap. It’s kind of cool but it was basically nothing. That was what I expected, so I kept my hands super closed most of the fight. Most of it. I only had my hand open the one time [laughs]. I don’t know. Did you see it in the fight? Did you see when I slapped her?… I didn’t even mean to. Didn’t even mean to happen. Didn’t even know that I guess you’re allowed to slap on some level.”

When playfully asked if that was Eye’s way of putting out feelers to Power Slap, Eye stated,

“Not even close. Somebody slap me, I might have a problem with it. But no, I was trying to parry punches and I didn’t get my hand closed in time [laughs]. But so no, it was not on purpose but it was hilarious. Listening to Chris Lytle say that I Stockton slapped her hilarious.”

Jessica Eye’s unexpected return to combat sports after a three year hiatus

Jessica Eye is a former UFC flyweight title challenger who seemed content to ride off into the sunset after a loss to Maycee Barber amid some serious health issues that caused a shift toward some meaningful life changes for Eye. When expounding upon the specifics of her timeline in the last few years that has seen her personally surprising return to competitive combat sports, Eye quipped,

“Oh my god, yeah. In three years like so much has happened. I mean, I think that ultimately it was really downplayed how sick I was from the parasite, right. Like I got the parasite in 2018 when I fought in Singapore. I retired in 2022, like a month and a half before I retired and had my last fight against Maycee [Barber], the parasite had just come out. My life, my body needed to heal. There was so many things that have happened since then. Mental healing, physical healing, I moved to Florida, I created a team that was really, really unique to me that I really have been so fortunate that I did that.”

“Coming back was never an option, it just kind of happened. I had gotten the call, it seemed like the right thing to do. I wanted to try it and Mariya [Agapova] was good. I think Mariya is going to be really successful in bare-knuckle herself too. I don’t think people are ready for even her kind of experience. I mean, there’s still a short number of UFC girls over in the bare-knuckle world.”

A man who made multiple bids for the UFC flyweight title against then-champion Demetrious Johnson feels confident he could return to the promotion and stop both the current 125 pound champion as well as the number one flyweight contender. John Dodson is the reigning BKFC flyweight champion and has been plying his trade in an MMA context with Rizin but seems confident he could make a return to the octagon one day in a big way.

‘The Magician’ expressed this thought while taking part in BKFC’s Champions Summit press conference event. When speaking with Danny Segura of MMA Junkie, Dodson said,

“Well, I can go ahead and knock out [Alexandre] Pantoja. That Joshua Van guy, I guarantee you, they want to talk about somebody who has incredible knockout power… my Filipino power can knock out his Filipino power.”

When asked by Segura if the door was open at all for a UFC comeback someday, Dodson stated,

“That door can always be reopened. I just gotta go ahead and secure my victories, go back out there, put dominant performance sin BKFC, and then also go back to Japan and go settle what’s out there too.”

The ‘stupid’ interim BKFC title situation this weekend in Dodson’s eyes

The flyweight title has not been contested for in BKFC in over a year with an interim flyweight title fight being booked for Saturday night. Andrew Strode will knuckle up and toe the line agaisnt Gee Perez at BKFC 78 in Hollywood, Florida for the interim strap. Amid a landscape of champions vacating their belts or even outright being stripped of them, it is a bit of a curiosity that this Dodson title reign has gone on uninterrupted to where we are now getting an interimchampion in the mix when the dust settles this weekend.

Addressing this title bout set for tomorrow and his overview of everything, John Dodson quipped [via Bloody Elbow],

“First of all, I think that’s stupid that they make an interim title that I’m an active champion. Like, I’m waiting to fight anybody. I asked to fight both the guys that are fighting for the title. I’ll go ahead and get the winner.”

Alexander Volkov has not stepped into the cage yet in 2025 but seems to have several enticing potential options in front of him for his return. Speaking to Nolan King of MMA Junkie, Volkov touched on several subjects including his own layoff from competition and the big shifts in the heavyweight landscape as of late.

King mentioned that Curtis Blaydes seemed keen on a Volkov fight and stated how the former Bellator MMA heavyweight champion is evidently a very popular guy these days with everybody at the top wanting a piece of Alex Volkov. Responding to this statement from King, Volkov said,

“I could fight with Curtis Blaydes as well. Curtis won against Almeida, as I remember. It’s a really good match for me and a good rematch as well. Both Almeida and Blaydes have similar styles—grappling and wrestling skills. Blaydes is more interesting because I lost to him before in a very close fight. So, it’s a good chance to give him back this loss.”

Alexander Volkov and the case some make for a UFC title shot outright

There are some out there who are thinking that Alexander Volkov has a case to get a UFC heavyweight title shot outright because while he technically lost his last fight, few truly seemed to perceive it as such. Volkov previously competed against Ciryl Gane last December at UFC 310 with the latter winning on points in a judges verdict that saw many in the space, including Dana White, stating that Volkov was screwed.

The 36-year-old indicated in the same MMA Junkie interview that this loss was actually something that motivated growth. With Gane being the frontrunner in the eyes of many to fight the recently upgraded titleholder in UFC heavyweight champion Tom Aspinall, it makes sense to many that Volkov should get the shot as they saw him as the rightful winner of the rematch with Gane.

The native of Russia could also be in a similar motivation-minded spot if an Aspinall fight came about as would be the case for a Blaydes rematch in as far as wanting to avenge a loss. Volkov and Aspinall fought each other in March 2022 with the latter submitting the former in the first round of their fight.

Devin Haney is aiming to become a three division world champion under Queensberry Rules in Q4 of 2025 with one of Haney’s peers from years ago weighing in on his looming WBO welterweight title bid. Appearing on an episode of Bare Knuckle Bowker, Andrew Strode discussed multiple topics ahead of his interim flyweight title fight against Gee Perez at BKFC 68 on July 12th.

Considering the history the BKFC title contender has with Haney, Strode was asked about Haney’s looming welterweight title bid against reigning WBO champion Brian Norman Jr. Touching upon the Haney history and this Haney vs. Norman Jr. title bout in November, at the 16:07 mark in the embedded interview below, Strode said,

“I used to train with Devin Haney. When I used to train at TMT, he used to train in the same gym. I didn’t used to actually train with him but he was in the same gym around the same time doing the same stuff. But he’s great, he’s great like he always has been. But I think Brian Norman [Jr.] will win by split [decision] because he throws more and he has that power. So does Devin Haney but I was not really impressed with Haney’s performance last fight. Even though he got the victory, I just wasn’t impressed by it. I’ve seen him better, a lot better. So I don’t know, I think Brian Norman [Jr.] will take that one.”

Devin Haney and the performance that he had last time out

Devin Haney was able to secure a unanimous decision victory in his last outing but the victory in May was not exactly a prizefight that lit the combat sports world on fire. While Haney secured a victory across all the ringside judges’ scorecards against Jose Ramirez, the fight was not deemed an exciting affair by many.

The contest marked Haney’s return to the ring after over a year on the sidelines following a difficult throwdown with Ryan Garcia that saw Haney dropped to the canvas multiple times last April. Many felt like the way Haney performed was tied to issues from the Garcia clash last year with the former favouring a more tentative approach against Ramirez. The final punch stats of the contest saw Haney throw only 224 punches with 45 power shots and 25 jabs landing throughout the twelve round affair.

Tom Aspinall has bested sixty percent of the UFC’s top ten in his weight class but wants to say that he’s beaten a hundred percent of the promotion’s top ten heavyweights in the coming months. During a sit down interview with Adam Catterall for One-on-One, the reigning UFC heavyweight champion covered several subjects in the wake of being upgraded from interim champions tatus after the prior titleholder Jon Jones vacated the belt to retire form MMA outright.

When discussing what kind of things get him fired up now that he is the divisional kingpin at heavyweight officially, Aspinall said,

“Everything excites me—this is heavyweight MMA at the top level. Anything can happen. Just because I’m ranked number one in the world, the undisputed champion now, doesn’t mean nobody can beat me. I know what heavyweight division’s like. You’re never further than one strike away from disaster. There’s a few guys I’ve not fought… and they’re the guys I want to fight.”

“The guy I’m fighting next is the most dangerous guy that I’m ever going to have to fight. Look at the top 10 now. I’ve beaten six of them. My goal is to beat 10. We’ve got a date. We’ve got an opponent to work towards. Everything’s good and I can finally get my career going again.”

Tom Aspinall says UFC heavyweight division is ‘ not exactly on fire’

Tom Aspinall is keen to wipe out the entire top ten of his weight class but it’s not lost on him that this present era of heavyweight isn’t exactly rife with big names anymore like Francis Ngannou or Jon Jones. When the 32-year-old was giving a broader overview of the weight category he helms, during that same referenced interview with Catterall, Tom Aspinall stated [via MMA Fighting],

“The heavyweight division’s not exactly on fire at the moment. From a name point of view. I think the talent’s there. But if you look five plus years ago, just the name value in the top 15 was incredible. We’re talking guys like Fabricio Werdum, Cain Velasquez, [Junior dos Santos], Mark Hunt, Alistair Overeem, Brock Lesnar, etc, etc. Stipe [Miocic], the list goes on and on.”

“You look through the top 15 and it’s like wow, that’s incredible. Where as now, even me who’s a heavyweight, I look through the top 15 and I’m like I’ve not really seen [these guys] fight before. I think over the next few years that’s going to change. I think there’s going to be more big fights at heavyweight. People are going to become bigger names, which is great. We just need more up and coming heavyweights doing a bit in the top 15.”

Caio Borralho is preparing to face the number one ranked middleweight contender in his next outing but Borralho seems tot hink that he si the top dog right now at 185 pounds. During a recent interview with Submission Radio, Borralho covered multipe topics leading into his UFC Paris clash with Nassourdine Imavov.

During the SR conversation, it was referenced that Imavov previously was trying to position himself as the back up fighter for UFC 319 which features reigning champion Dricus du Plessis defending his strap against Khamzat Chimaev. When asked why he feels like Imavov pivoted to deciding to take on this clash with the number six ranked middleweight instead, Borralho said,

“He’s not the guy that makes the rules here. He thought he was, but he wasn’t. He has no options right now. He can’t just sit on the number one contender spot and wait. He beat old Izzy, had an early stoppage with Cannonier, almost didn’t beat Brendan Allen. I’ve been dominating all my opponents. I’m undefeated in the UFC—7-0, 9-0 with the Contender Series, 10 years unbeaten. This is the fight to make to see who is the real contender.”

Caio Borralho reveals his gameplan for UFC Paris

Caio Borralho and Nassourdine Imavov will throw down in quite the compelling middleweight clash set for September with the former having a pretty clearly defined idea of how things will play out with the latter when the two step into the Accor Arena. Some fighters seem coy about aritculating what their gameplan will be when heading into a fight but the Fighting Nerds standout was not shy in divulging details of what his approach will be against Imavov.

Getting into the specifics of how he sees this Nassourdine Imavov contest playing out during the same interview with Submission Radio, Borralho stated,

“I’m going to touch him a lot, I’m going to pressure him. I’m going to defend his speed and then in the right time, I’m going to knock him out.”

Maycee Barber was reportedly not given medical clearance to make the walk to the cage for her last scheduled fight with Erin Blanchfield and a previous opponent of the former has offered up their thoughts on the last minute withdrawal. Appearing on Bare Knuckle Bowker, Jessica Eye covered several subjects following her first victory as a debutant in the world of gloveless combat at BKFC 76 in Texas on June 21st.

When discussing the situation involving her former opponent Barber not being able to step into the cage for her May 31st battle of ranked UFC flyweights with Blanchfield, at the 15:50 mark in the embedded interview below, Eye said,

“Yeah, I mean I absolutely hated what happened to Maycee [Barber] and I’ve reached out to her about wanting to talk to her about health issues and possibly helping her from things I went through. So no, I did see that and I felt terrible for her… I’m here if she needs me.”

Maycee Barber and Jessica Eye’s history with one another

Jessica Eye and Maycee Barber seem to have a more support oriented dynamic between eachother these days, per the former above, but things got intense between the two just a bit over three years ago. On July 2nd, 2022 as part of the preliminary portion of UFC 276, Barber and Eye stepped into the cage to test skills against one another underneath the bright lights.

When the dust was settled, Barber earned a unanimous decision victory over the former UFC flyweight title challenger with Eye indicating her retirement from MMA in the fallout of their bout. This was Eye’s last UFC contest and began a period of jsut shy of three years where ‘Evil’ Eye was not seen plying her trade in live combat sports competition.

Eye has battled her own health issues in the life timeline from her UFC swan song to this recent BKFC debut. This partly informed her desire to reach out to her former opponent to see if Eye could provide any help to Barber in what was reported as a health issue for her.

Tom Aspinall is officially the UFC heavyweight champion and his excitement to return to competition seemed palpable during a recent interview. This recent chat took place with Brett Okamoto with the conversation being platformed on the official UFC YouTube channel. Aspinall has not competed in the cage since last July when he dispatched Curtis Blaydes with strikes sixty seconds into the bout.

While that UFC 304 outing saw him avenge a prior loss to Blaydes, defending his interim title in the United Kingdom was clearly not what Aspinall was seeking at the time. With the highly sought after Jon Jones bout falling by the wayside as ‘Bones’ retired from MMA, Aspinall has now achieved what was ultimately his overall goal of getting to now call himself the UFC heavyweight champion outright.

When discussing some of the feelings that he’s had being benched for the last year [as of July 27th when UFC 304 transpired last year], Aspinall said,

“What did I miss the most? I like how locked in I feel when I’ve got a fight. Nothing else really matters for that eight or twelve weeks apart from that. Something else I really enjoy is getting my hands wrapped in an arena, with another guy getting his hands wrapped in the same arena, and us both meeting in the middle in our underwear and seeing who the better man is. That anticipation… Walking out into a crowd of 25,000 screaming people—that’s a drug money can’t buy.”

Tom Aspinall has a date and an opponent ready

Tom Aspinall is seemingly on the verge of getting his next hit of this proverbial drug as he recently stated that he has a date and an opponent ready for him. This was mentioned by the divisional ruler during a separate interview with Adam Catterall with Aspinall quipping,

“Meetings have been done and I now have a fight. We’ve got a date, we’ve got an opponent to work towards.”

While he was coy on specifics, the UFC titleholder also went on to say that he wants to earn victories over the entirety of the top ten ranked heavyweights and Aspinall mentioned that he wanted to fight four times within the next twelve months to accomplish this.

Mike Perry has put Nate Diaz in his crosshairs for a clash on the DBX circuit as there is a seeming lack of confidence that the former UFC combatant would want to throw down in bare-knuckle with the ‘King of Violence’. While Perry is one of the major figureheads of DBX, it seems that ‘Platinum’ wants to be a player-manager on the Dirty Boxing Championship circuit someday.

The name of Nate Diaz was brought up in this vein with Perry describing him as a desired opponent under the hybrid ruleset of DBX which the BKFC star discussed on a recent episode of his podcast, Overdogs. During this episode when he was asking himself aloud, who takes damage better than himself, Perry said,

“Maybe Nate Diaz sometimes huh?… Nate Diaz, Mike Perry, there’s a fight there somewhere! But these guys wouldn’t do it bare knuckle.”

His Overdogs podcast co-host MacMally responded to this statement regarding the former UFC lightweight title challenger/ former ranked UFC welterweight by quipping,

“Nate’s face would bust up so fast at bare knuckle. Like I mean his face gets cut up just from jabs with gloves on, bro.”

Mike Perry unsure if former UFC champion is keen on fighting him bare knuckle

Mike Perry has not stepped into a live competitive combat sports scenario since his setback against Jake Paul in a boxing bout which took place last July. Perry does seem keen on making a return to the world of gloveless combat though but questions if a former UFC welterweight champion is interested in fighting him in the BKFC ring.

The person that is being referred to here is Robbie Lawler with these two having a history that dates back to their UFC days. A Perry vs. Lawler fight was targeted for UFC 255 in late-2020 with the latter sustaining an injury that scrapped the bout. During a recent interview with Home of Fight, Robbie Lawler was put on blast a bit by Mike Perry as Perry stated [via BJPenn.com],

“Everybody wants to see me beat him up, man. I think he’s scared. He’s too afraid. Robbie’s afraid because I got five bare-knuckle fights. Plus, you know, any street fight I’ve ever had.”

“I don’t know. Has Robbie ever been in a street fight? I don’t think he has. I don’t think people tried him. How could it have happened and not gone on the internet?”