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Former UFC knockout artist now too ‘Big’, so BKFC owner Conor McGregor creates Super Heavyweight division and title


Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) is headed “Down Under.”

BKFC announced today that their debut fight card in Australia will be headlined by former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Heavyweight Ben Rothwell, who will collide with Alex Simon for the inaugural BKFC super heavyweight title on Fri., July 18, 2025.

Rothwell snatched the BKFC Heavyweight title from Mick Terrill in 36 seconds at BKFC: Knuckle Mania 5 this past January (watch highlights).

In the co-main event, Australia’s own Bec Rawlings is taking on Jade Masson-Wong in a Flyweight bout.

BKFC co-owner Conor McGregor was super excited about the announcement.

Rothwell could be ultra scary at Super Heavyweight, especially because he won’t be cutting weight to make the 265 lb limit anymore.

After his most recent fight, Rothwell revealed to MMA Fighting he cut 31 lbs to make the Heavyweight division, and it was tough.

“When I fought in California, I got my walk-around weight down to 296 and then leading up to weight-cut day, I was 288,” Rothwell said. “So we’re under 20 pounds, and I got that off not too badly. It was some work, but something this time around it was a full 31 pounds. I got down to Thursday when they did their pre-weight check with me, I was 295. So it was every bit of 20 pounds in less than 24 hours. It was a 20-pound weight cut.”

Photo by Amy Kaplan/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

Nevertheless, Rothwell has been flawless in BKFC thus far, stopping all of his opponents. With a win this summer, he will be a “champ-champ.”

His opponent, Simon, will be making his bare-knuckle debut after a three-fight boxing stint, during which he went 1-2.


To checkout the latest BKFC-related news and notes click here.




This story originally appeared on MMA Mania

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