Joe Lauzon is headed to Fenway Park. Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship has added the retired UFC lightweight to BKFC 92, the promotion’s August 29 debut in Massachusetts, with no opponent named yet.
The booking puts one of the most beloved fighters in Boston combat sports history on a card built around local appeal. Lauzon, a Bridgewater native who has spent his post-fighting years running Lauzon MMA, has not competed since October 2019.
BKFC 92 takes place directly on the field at Fenway Park, home of the Boston Red Sox. The promotion is billing it as the first sanctioned bare-knuckle fighting event ever held in the Commonwealth.
BKFC at Fenway Park
The main event features featherweight champion Kai Stewart defending his title against Haverhill’s Harry Gigliotti. BKFC president David Feldman has said the company plans to fill out the rest of the card with local and East Coast fighters, and Lauzon fits that blueprint cleanly.
Lauzon walked away from MMA as one of the UFC’s all-time fan favorites. He retired tied for the most post-fight bonus awards in UFC lightweight history, with a finishing style that made him a fixture on Fight of the Night lists across more than a decade in the promotion.
His last fight was a first-round knockout of Jonathan Pearce in Boston in October 2019. Several attempts to book a sendoff bout against Donald Cerrone fell apart between 2022 and 2023, and Lauzon never returned to the cage. He later spoke openly about the limbo surrounding his fighting future while remaining under UFC contract.
An opponent, weight, and bout placement for his BKFC debut have not been announced. Additional fights for BKFC 92 are expected to be confirmed in the coming weeks.