BKFC president David Feldman debunks UFC buyout rumor, says there's "no truth" to the viral claim
David Feldman recently met with Dana White, who is considered one of the greatest promoters in combat sports. The meeting led to rumors that the UFC could be looking to buy Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, which the biggest promotion in mixed martial arts has done in the past.
Speaking to Ariel Helwani of The MMA Hour, the BKFC president was asked if the UFC President and CEO made an offer to buy his promotion, responding:
"No, there's no truth to that. Look, we had a great conversation. He was very, very surprised by the amount of shows and the numbers we were doing. It could be of interest to him, but the crazy thing is as I'm doing this journey, it's like a roller coaster. You have the best days in the world and then you have days where you're like forget this, I want to stop. Yesterday was one of those days, this morning I wake up to an unbelievable offer to buy BKFC and we turned it down. We're just not where we want to be yet."
Feldman continued:
"I want to make sure it changes everyone's life. This one would've changed everyone's life, but I talked to a couple of team members and they said let's keep going with it. They wanted to keep us involved with it and because they wanted to keep us involved with it, I said if we're going to be involved with it, we might as well just ride this out ourselves. We're not going anywhere. We're doing great things."
Check out David Feldman's comments on if the UFC attempted to buy BKFC below:
David Feldman added that the promotion will travel to anywhere between seven and nine different countries in 2024. He noted that the company's projected revenue for the year is five times more than it made in 2023. The BKFC president did not disclose who made the offer to buy the promotion.
What did David Feldman previously say about Dana White meeting?
David Feldman shared a photo with Dana White last month, leading to speculation about the nature of their meeting. The Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship President discussed the meeting with MMA Fighting, stating:
"It was more of just creating an ally. That’s really all I have to say. It was great meeting. He’s a great guy. He’s doing his thing with UFC, and we’re going to do our thing with BKFC. We’re going to be the biggest combat sport on the planet." [h/t MMA Fighting]
David Feldman noted that he is open to a cross-promotional event as he looks to grow the sport and company. BKFC previously did a cross-promotional bout with Bellator at BKFC 27: London in 2022, where Mike Perry beat Michael 'Venom' Page via majority decision. Dana White, however, has expressed that he has no interest in cross-promotion bouts.