Mike Perry is finally back in the BKFC.

The “King of Violence” has booked his next bare-knuckle fight as he faces UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens in a 175-pound showdown scheduled for the first BKFC card in Newark, N.J. on Oct. 4.

BKFC announced the pairing on The Ariel Helwani show Wednesday.

Perry, who quickly became the face of BKFC after joining the promotion, hasn’t fought there since April 2024 when he wiped out former UFC title challenger Thiago Alves just one-minute into the opening round. That brought Perry’s bare-knuckle fighting record to 5-0 with other wins including finishes over a pair of former UFC champions in Eddie Alvarez and Luke Rockhold.

Following his most recent win, Perry took the opportunity to crossover to boxing before ultimately losing to Jake Paul with a sixth round TKO. Since that time, Perry has been waiting for his next assignment and now he’s booked for a return in October.

As for Stephens, he boasts a 3-0 record in bare-knuckle including his own win over Alvarez back in January. After that fight, Stephens actually returned to the UFC for an event booked in his home state of Iowa before losing a decision to Mason Jones.

Now back in BKFC, Stephens attempts to build on his impressive bare-knuckle record when he clashes with Perry in October.

BKFC president David Feldman told Yahoo! Sports that talks initially revolved around Darren Till but ultimately the two sides couldn’t strike a deal. Another option available was Robbie Lawler but Feldman revealed the former welterweight champion is still under UFC contract and ultimately he believes the veteran fighter is likely going to stay retired rather than returning to compete again.

In the end, Stephens took the matchup and now he’ll meet Perry in a 175-pound fight in October.

Alexandr Romanov leads a list of heavyweight luminaries chasing a $500,000 in the PFL this season.

The league announced its official rosters for its upcoming heavyweight and light heavyweight tournaments on Tuesday, a field that includes Romanov, who was ranked in the UFC not long ago and became a free agent following a win at UFC Edmonton this past November.

Joining Romanov (18-3) in the heavyweight bracket are one-time interim Bellator champion Valentin Moldavsky (13-4, 1 NC), 2024 PFL tournament finalist Oleg Popov (19-2), veterans Linton Vassell (24-10, 1 NC) and Tim Johnson (18-11), recent PFL competitor Sergey Bilostenniy (13-3), plus prospects Pouya Rahmani (4-0) and Abraham Bably (5-1).

Over on the light heavyweight side, former Bellator champion Phil Davis (24-7, 1 NC) makes his PFL debut. He is joined by past tournament winners Antonio Carlos Junior (16-6, 2 NC) and Rob Wilkinson (19-3, 1 NC), along with Karl Moore (12-3), Marcelo Nunes (11-2), Simeon Powell (10-1), Karl Albrektsson (14-6), and Sullivan Cauley (6-1).

Alex Polizzi (11-4) and Rafael Xavier (13-8) have been designated as alternates for the light heavyweight tournament. No heavyweight alternates were mentioned.

The 2025 PFL season kicks off on April 3, followed by events on April 11, April 18, and May 1, all taking place at Universal Studios Florida.

Guilherme “Bomba” Vasconcelos died by suicide.

Back in October, news broke the UFC and Bellator veteran had passed away at just 38 years old. At the time, his cause of death was not revealed, but on Saturday, TMZ Sports confirmed that Vasconcelos’s death was ruled a suicide by law enforcement.

Per TMZ, who obtained a copy of the case report, Vasconcelos’s body was found in the garage of an Illinois home. No suicide note was recovered and his toxicology report came back showing only caffeine.

Bomba began his MMA career in 2012 and just two years later joined the cast of The Ultimate Fighter: Brazil 3. Despite losing to Ricardo Abreu, Vasconcelos still made it to the UFC, losing his lone fight in the promotion against Luke Zachrich. He later fought six times under the Bellator banner before hanging up the gloves in 2019. Vasconcelos was known outside the MMA bubble for dating Demi Lovato in 2017.

If you or someone you know is dealing with mental health issues, please reach out.

In the U.S., the 988 Lifeline can be reached at 1-800-985-5990, or by text via 988 or at 988lifeline.org.

Jason Jackson was disgusted to see footage released recently that showed UFC veteran Kevin Lee getting rocked by a training partner during a sparring session at Kill Cliff FC in Florida.

The viral video drew strong reactions from many of the fighters who train out of the Florida-based gym, including Jackson, who has called that team home long before the current name took hold. After the video exploded on social media, Mirali Huseynov went public and identified himself as the sparring partner who landed the punch with a post on Instagram explaining his side of the situation that he later deleted.

For his part, Jackson claims Huseynov has a reputation for going too hard with his sparring partners and he actually warned Lee that could happen.

“I was devastated because that guy is known for that,” Jackson told MMA Fighting. “He hurt me in the gym. He’s known for that. So when I saw the video, even the apology, it wasn’t sincere. Everybody ate it up. We felt betrayed as a community.

“All the people that was in the gym was commenting on his page, the Russians and everybody with him, I felt even bad about it like damn, you don’t see nothing wrong in that doing? That’s complicit right there.”

Watching the video, Jackson knew that none of the blame fell on Lee after he pulled up on a jumping knee strike rather than landing it flush and potentially hurting his training partner. In return, Lee got blasted with a huge hook that put him down on a knee, leaving him rocked and wobbled as he tried to stand again.

Jackson says he learned from his own past experiences training with Huseynov that he can’t pull punches to keep them both safe because that would only result in absorbing more damage from a dangerous sparring partner.

“You could tell Kevin did not want to land that knee,” Jackson said. “He’s done it to me twice. The thing is that same week I pieced him up bad because I said when I go with you it ain’t no touch, touch and then boom you hit me hard. I’m coming right after you. I’m not coming with no love, brother, brother, you hurt me.

“If you know you’re going to hurt me, let’s make it clear from the get go. I respect you [more] as a training partner instead if you touch, touch and then you try to hit me hard. They all come in with that type of style. That’s how they fight.”

Deep down, Jackson believes Huseynov was trying to get attention with the video showing him knocking down a former UFC title challenger during a training session. However, he feels the video going public only looks bad for the entire team because of the old adage “What happens in the gym, stays in the gym.”

“I was uncomfortable with the situation because now it makes the gym look like a spy and not a team,” Jackson said. “Nobody taking care of nobody.

“Trying to get famous off of that. Saying, ‘My coach did it, my coach didn’t know.’ Well if you know your coach is that person that can’t control himself, you’re not supposed to have him in that environment with a camera phone. It’s still showing that you’re not holding yourself accountable as a man. He’s young and he’s looking for fame. That’s all it is.”

Despite warning Lee about what might happen, Jackson says the Detroit native still opted to train with Huseynov but it still doesn’t excuse what happened.

“I felt bad for [Kevin Lee], too. He didn’t deserve that because I warned him,” Jackson said. “I told him to stay away from that guy. But the fact that [he] was Muslim and Kevin is Muslim, he kind of thought they was going to take care of him but that guy is not good.

“Because in training, I’m simulating my training to take it a notch down so you can move in certain positions and you’re going to control and hurt me. That just shows that you have no control. You feel as a teammate [you’re supposed] to protect your sparring partner. I told Kevin that, like, stay away from him.”

After the sparring footage leaked, rumors circulated that Huseynov was actually banned from training at Kill Cliff FC, but Jackson doesn’t know if that’s accurate or not. All he knows is that viral video made his entire gym look bad and Jackson acknowledges that sometimes there’s just no coming back from that.

“I’m not sure [if he’s banned],” Jackson said. “I wasn’t in there with whoever banned him. They can say whatever they want. Until I see it physically, then I don’t know because I heard he was going to do some [reality] show or something like that. Down the line, he becomes a celeb and they just bring him right back.

“Nobody was happy. Because we know we protect our guys. Those guys just come in and use it like a training facility. Not a team. It’s just a training facility. They’ve got their own team, their own coaches, they just come in here and try to use guys that have more skills and everything and just go about their business. Those guys, I don’t know if I could consider them a teammate. It’s hard.”

Few things infuriate MMA fans more than a fight being scored incorrectly, though the term “robbery” tends to be thrown around carelessly and is often steeped in bias. With Robbery Review, we’ll take a look back at controversial fights and determine whether the judges were rightly criticized for their decision or if pundits need to examine their own knee-jerk reactions.

Who would have thought that PFL (and Bellator, kind of? RIP) would bring us our first scoring controversy of the year?

The PFL Dubai main event between lightweight champion Usman Nurmagomedov and Paul Hughes was well-promoted, though based on the odds, Nurmagomedov was the favorite and still expected to make easy work of his upstart challenger. It didn’t play out that way as Hughes proved to be more than a match for Nurmagomedov, expertly clashing with him in all phases of the game and doing more than enough to win over the crowd if not the fight itself.

Nurmagomedov walked out with the majority decision win, a verdict not everyone agreed with. Notably, Conor McGregor believed it was an “easy win” for his fellow Irishman (a sentiment that predictably gave way to spite later on), and longtime Nurmagomedov family nemesis Dillon Danis tweeted, “Paul Hughes was robbed!” Completely unbiased takes, obviously.

But where there’s smoke, there’s also hundreds of faceless social media users crying “robbery!” along with Danis, so we figured why not take this one to the lab for a rare non-UFC Robbery Review?

What was the official result?

Usman Nurmagomedov def. Paul Hughes via majority decision.

How did the fight go?

The first thing that jumps out watching the first two rounds is the diversity of the striking diet of both competitors. Sure, they were trying to knock each other’s blocks off, but they mixed in plenty of body and leg strikes to great effect. Nurmagomedov was shredding Hughes’ lead leg early and also found success spamming side kicks to the body. On the other side, Hughes punished Nurmagomedov with body punches inside during clinch sequences and he landed leg kicks of his own that looked like they were bothering the champion at the end of Round 2.

As far as power shots go, Nurmagomedov had a sharp counter right working and also scored with a big elbow on a separation, while Hughes’ left hook was money and he also landed a switch kick that wowed the crowd when it pushed an off-balance Nurmagomedov to the mat.

In Round 3, we had a pivotal moment as Nurmagomedov caught Hughes with a brutal inside kick to the groin. It wasn’t the first, and it was one too many for referee Mike Beltran, who had little choice but to deduct Nurmagomedov a point. That gave Nurmagomedov some ground to make up. Luckily for him this was where his wrestling started to shine. He couldn’t hold Hughes down, but he had success holding on to Hughes, winning scrambles, and stifling the Irishman’s offense.

The championship rounds were close, with Round 4 highlighted by an awesome visual of Hughes with blood trickling down his face after an accidental clash of heads. As Nurmagomedov was being checked out by a ringside physician, Hughes stood with a smirk on his face before working the crowd up into a frenzy. It wasn’t just showmanship either, as he landed some great shots in the round with an uppercut on a ducking Nurmagomedov and a hard right hand from range.

The final round saw Nurmagomedov put renewed emphasis on his wrestling, perhaps feeling he needed to secure one more round to take the fight. Hughes refused to go down easily, even with Nurmagomedov clinging onto him with that trademark Dagestani grip until Hughes hit a gorgeous switch to nearly take Nurmagomedov’s back. They returned to the striking and Nurmagomedov landed the best sequence of the round, blasting Hughes with a 1-2 followed by a knee up the middle. Nurmagomedov tried to end the round with a takedown, but Hughes hit another switch, and the fight wrapped up with them swinging instead.

Brilliant contest.

What did the judges say?

Sal D’Amato scored it 48-46 Nurmagomedov.

Eric Colon scored it 48-46 Nurmagomedov.

Hadi Ali scored it 47-47.

Scorecards were all over the place here, with rounds 2, 4, and 5 all disputed. D’Amato and Colon gave Round 2 to Nurmagomedov, D’Amato and Ali gave Round 4 to Hughes, and D’Amato and Ali gave Round 5 to Nurmagomedov.

What did the media say?

Eight media scores were logged by MMA Decisions, with none having it for Hughes. However, three did score it a 47-47 draw, including MMA Fighting’s own Jed Meshew, who gave rounds 1 and 5 to Nurmagomedov, and rounds 2 and 4 to Hughes, with the middle round being a draw due to Nurmagomedov having the advantage but losing a point for the low blow.

What did the people say?

On MMA Decisions, 25.4 percent of voters actually gave all five rounds to the champion (resulting in a 49-45 score with the deduction). However, there were plenty of Hughes backers, too, with 20.4 percent having it 48-46 for the challenger. Draw took 19.9 percent of the vote.

This was a close fight!

How did I score it?

I had it 47-47 by the end, but damn, almost all of these rounds felt like toss-ups.

I give Nurmagomedov the edge in Round 1 and Hughes Round 2, but it’s not like either ran away with either of those frames. It was the precision of Nurmagomedov’s kicks and his sturdy defense that earned him the first 10-9, with Hughes taking the second 10-9 on the strength of his pace and that step kick that caught Nurmagomedov slipping.

Round 3 is less controversial than it seems at a glance. Nurmagomedov clearly won it on my card, kicking it up a notch in the wrestling department and finding ways to do damage on those separations. He deservedly lost a point for repeated low blows, though, making this fight truly up for grabs going into the championship rounds.

And you know what? I can hardly separate them. Round 4 was 10-9 Hughes for me thanks to a beautiful uppercut and consistent pressure, plus Nurmagomedov didn’t do much significant damage in the round. And then I lean towards the champ in Round 5 for landing arguably the best strikes of the fight when he popped Hughes with a 1-2 followed by a knee to the head.

So yes, 47-47. Draw!

Was it a robbery?

Hardly.

I don’t see at all how one can convince themselves that either fighter did enough to greatly distance themselves from their opponent. That’s not a slam on them either, because this fight ruled, it just goes to show how on-point the matchmaking was and how high-level Nurmagomedov and Hughes are. I’m convinced either would be a legitimate contender on the UFC roster if they ever made that jump.

I agree, it sucks to see Hughes take a loss on his record when he did seemingly everything in his power to avoid that outcome, but even he said afterwards he felt he left something in the tank.

No matter what, we need to see these two run it back, preferably right away.

The final verdict

Not a robbery. No matter what McGregor and Danis have to say about it.