Live this Friday night from the Boutwell Auditorium in Birmingham, Alabama comes another edition of Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship: Cleckler vs. Burns. In the main event, it’s exactly that as Dillon “Bad Boy” Cleckler (11-1 MMA, 2-0 BKFC) goes head-to-head against Josh “The Hammer” Burns (8-10 MMA, 1-0 BKFC). While Cleckler has winning records in both MMA and bare-knuckle bouts, Burns will look to knock him down a peg as both men are undefeated in this hybrid of competition.
BKFC 17 | Fri. April 30th
Pre-order now for only $3.99 at https://t.co/HLL6nJslEV 🔥 pic.twitter.com/XjmbRguJZo— Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) April 24, 2021
Cleckler defeated Frank Tate at BKFC 11 back in July of 2020 and Chris Jensen this past February at Knucklemania. As for Burns, his lone victory came over Chris Sarro at BKFC 15 back in December of 2020.
The co-main event will feature Birmingham’s own Marcel Stamps (4-2 MMA, 1-1 BKFC) going up against Mike “The Marine” Richman (18-8 MMA, 0-0 BKFC). Stamps last fought against “The Mexicutioner” Joey Beltran to a fourth-round TKO defeat back in October of 2020. Meanwhile, Richman makes his promotional debut after making his bare-knuckle debut with the Valor Bare Knuckle promotion back in September 2019, where he fought JC Llamas to a no contest.
Mark Godbeer (13-5 MMA, 0-0 BKFC) will finally make his long-awaited BKFC debut after two-fight cancellations when he takes on Mick Terrill. Also, another Birmingham native in Frank Tate (6-7 MMA, 0-1 BKFC) is looking to avenge his loss to Cleckler by facing off against Zachary Calmus.
Other upcoming bouts are as follows:
Lorenzo Hunt (3-5 MMA, 4-1 BKFC) vs. Josh Dyer (4-4 MMA, 1-0 BKFC).
Chris Sarro (1-0 MMA, 2-1 BKFC) vs. Ehsanullah Kakar 1-1 MMA, 0-0 BKFC)
Rusty Crowder (6-9 MMA, 2-2 BKFC) vs. Louie Lopez (Amateur MMA: 4-4, 0-0 BKFC)
BKFC 17 will air on FITE.tv at 7PM ET/4 PM ET.