Franco Tenaglia became a new BKFC lightweight champion on October 12, when he faced Tony Soto in the main event at Marbella Arena in Marbella, Spain. The Argentinian-born Spain-based 28-year-old bare knuckle boxer defeated his opponent of Hickory, North Carolina by majority decision. After five rounds, one judge scored the fight 46-46, while two other judges had 47-45 in favor of the representative of the country-host.
With the victory, Franco Tenaglia claimed the belt, improved to 4-0 and remained undefeated. Tony Soto dropped to 6-1 and suffered his first defeat.
“I’ve been waiting 10 years for this,” Tenaglia said post-fight. “Look at me now. I’m a world champion.”
In the co-main event, former boxing world champion Austin Trout (3-0) of El Paso, TX successfully defended his BKFC welterweight belt against Rico Franco (9-3) the UK. After five rounds, all three scores were 50-43.
In the third title fight, David Mundell (9-1) of Oldsmar, FL retained his middleweight strap via TKO against Danny Christie (5-2) of the UK. The official time of stoppage was 55 seconds into the second round.
Among other BKFC Spain results, Dan Chapman (6-0) of the UK eliminated Mike Jurik (0-1) of Czech in the first round at featherweight. Brazilian Felipe da Silva Maia (2-1) stopped James Lilley (8-3-1) of the UK in the first round at welterweight.
Also on the card, Scotland’s former boxing world champion Hannah Rankin (1-0) defeated Deborah Melhorn (0-1) of Germany by split decision. After five rounds at featherweight, the scores were 47-48 for Melhorn, and 49-46 twice for Rankin.
Plus, Oscar Stephens-Willis (1-0) of the UK stopped Ben Davis (0-1) of Cave Creek, Arizona in the first round at lightweight. In the main card opener, Yunus Emre Batan (2-1) of Turkey scored a unanimous decision against France’s Maxime Bellamy (1-1) at middleweight.
Among the BKFC Spain prelims, Nico Gaffie (1-0) of Spain TKO’d Czech Radek Stadler (0-1) in the second round at bantamweight. Austria’s Arbi Chakaev (1-0) defeated Jose Daniel of Spain via first-round TKO at light heavyweight. In an-all Spanish lightweight event opener, David Mora (1-0) took the victory via fourth-round doctor stoppage against Fran Suarez (0-1).
The next bare knuckle boxing event, BKFC 67 takes place at Denver Coliseum in Denver, Colorado on October 25. Atop the fight card, Chris Camozzi (2-1) of Alameda, California and Sawyer Depee (5-2) of Lolo, Montana battle it out for the vacant title at cruiserweight.