Naked Knuckle Preventing Championship’s Knuckle Mania 3 goes down on February seventeenth in Albuquerque, New Mexico. In a considerably stunning flip, the promotion simply introduced that the official co-main occasion of the night will embrace longtime UFC veteran, Diego Sanchez, in a naked knuckle boxing bout towards former WBA mild middleweight champion, Austin Trout.
This previous December, BKFC acquired approval from the New Mexico Athletic Fee to host their occasion at Tingley Coliseum. What didn’t get permitted on the time, nonetheless, was the matchup between the now 41-year-old Sanchez and the 37-year-old Trout. That was voted towards by NMAC members based mostly off of the state of Sanchez’s health degree after a high-milage MMA profession.
As recorded by the Albuquerque Journal, NMAC Commissioner, Jerome O’Connell, initially advised the previous light-weight title challenger on the time, “With all due respect to Mr. Sanchez … I simply must say on this struggle, I can not assist it.”
Sanchez’s agent, Ricky Kottenstette, responded to that assertion by telling the fee that his shopper would offer outcomes of MRIs and different neurological exams to the fee, and adopted up that he was “assured that (the exams) will present no points.”
Quick ahead to January tenth, and it appears Sanchez has been cleared to maneuver ahead as a naked knuckle boxer. Bloody Elbow has reached out to the New Mexico Athletic Fee on the rationale behind their change of coronary heart, however have but to listen to again on the time of publishing.
After realizing a King of the Cage title in 2004, Sanchez made his approach to The Final Fighter Season 1, and ended up successful the present by stopping Kenny Florian with strikes on the TUF 1 finale. From there, Diego went on to struggle his approach to a title shot towards BJ Penn in 2009, however was stopped within the fifth spherical after a head kick opened up a nasty gash on his brow.
Sanchez by no means gained three fights in a row after that, however he was constantly booked within the UFC for an additional 11-years. He ended up strolling away from the UFC in 2020 with a promotional report of 19-13, after which dropped a unanimous choice to Kevin Lee at Eagle FC 46 in 2022. His total MMA report at present stands at 30-14.
What about Austin Trout? The previous WBA mild middleweight champion, has a boxing report of 36-5-1, and is at present on a five-fight successful streak. His final victory was a unanimous nod over Jose Sanchez Charles simply again in December of 2022. His most notable win got here approach again in 2012, when he defended his belt towards Miguel Cotto. Trout dropped his title to Canelo Alvarez the very subsequent yr.
Alongside Trout vs. Sanchez, Knuckle Mania 3 the struggle card is about to be headlined by a lightweight heavyweight (185 lbs) championship struggle between title holder Lorenzo Hunt and challenger Mike Richman. A former regional MMA expertise, Hunt has competed completely in naked knuckle boxing—to the tune of a 9-1 report—following a 2018 loss to present UFC middleweight Joe Pyfer. A longtime Bellator fighter, Richman turned to boxing in 2018 after a pair of 2017 losses in LFA. He’s at present 5-0 (1 NC) as a naked knuckle boxer.