Eddie Alvarez is focusing on honing the skills of the future wave of bare knuckle fighters but a big BKFC Philly fight could be in his future as well. On this edition of Bare Knuckle Bowker, Travis Thompson discussed several topics before he tests skills with Micah Livingston at BKFC Philly on July 25th.
When touching on who he has been training with as of late and also pontificating on when we might see 'The Underground King' throw down in gloveless combat once again, Thompson said,
"Anthony Pagan. I work out at Eddie Alvarez's gym with Eddie also. So yeah, I do that on the weekends. So I actually get to get into a bare knuckle ring and use that for my camp which is amazing... Well he's also working with Anthony Pagan who actually had his pro debut at the last one March 21st at 2300. So he's been working with him a lot. As far as Eddie getting back in the ring, I wouldn't be surprised if you see another Wells Fargo fight. That's where I would assume I would see Eddie because he's a big ticket seller in Philly. So I think Dave [Feldman] would want him back there at the Wells Fargo."
BKFC Philly Successes and Making History with Eddie Alvarez
To the point of Eddie Alvarez being a big bare knuckle ticket seller in Philadelphia, the former Bellator MMA and UFC lightweight champion helped break an attendance record for indoor fight cards in the Pensylvania city in what was the biggest attendance turnout for a fight card in Philly in over seventy years.
In September 1952, Rocky Marciano vs. Jersey Joe Walcott I at Municipal Stadium has held the Philly attendance record for a combat sports event with over 40,000 people attending. BKFC KnuckleMania 5, which advertised a headliner of Eddie Alvarez clashing with Jeremy Stephens, generated a BKFC Philly crowd of close to 18,000 ticket buyers at the Wells Fargo Center. In a separate Bare Knuckle Bowker interview, one of BKFC's commentators was discussing the historical importance of that BKFC Philly card in January as Sean Wheelock stated,
“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.”
