BKFC Founder David Feldman Heads to Brisbane for Fight Night Australia

Fresh off staging a landmark event at Boston's Fenway Park, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship is bringing its global live production to Brisbane — and this time, the promotion's founder is coming with it.

David Feldman, founder and president of BKFC, will travel to Brisbane for BKFC Fight Night Australia at Eatons Hill Hotel on Saturday 3 October, marking the promotion's second event on Australian soil and its first full production in Queensland's capital.

Feldman founded BKFC in 2018, and under his leadership it became the first promotion allowed to stage a legal, regulated bare-knuckle event in the United States since 1889 — 129 years earlier — after Wyoming became the first US state to explicitly legalise the sport. That history is built into the promotion's identity, from the patented four-rope "Squared Circle" to the willingness to lean into the sport's outlaw roots rather than sand them off.

The other name attached to BKFC is one Brisbane will recognise faster than Feldman's own: Conor McGregor bought into the promotion as a part-owner in 2024, taking what Feldman has since described as "needle-moving equity." Since then McGregor has been an active brand ambassador and strategic advisor rather than a silent investor, and his backing is part of what's funding BKFC's newly announced $25 million global tournament — the clearest sign yet that the promotion is done being a challenger brand and is chasing the UFC directly.

Brisbane audiences won't just be getting a card of fights. BKFC's pitch has always been the full production — the lighting rigs, the walkout entrances, the crowd energy — built to feel the same whether you're watching in Boston or Eatons Hill.

"This is not just another fight night," the promotion said in announcing the event. "This is the full BKFC production — the Squared Circle, the lights, the walkouts, the atmosphere and the explosive action that has built the promotion a rapidly growing global following."

A fast-growing following down under

BKFC has reported more than 250 million in global social reach as it's grown from challenger brand to major combat sports property, in the process breaking live attendance records previously held by UFC events. Its first Australian event, held at the Townsville Entertainment and Convention Centre in April, sold out and generated more than 80 million social video views on its own — 54.8 million on Instagram, 13.7 million on TikTok, 5.4 million on X, 4 million on YouTube, and 3 million live viewers across the promotion's platforms.

It backed that reach up with a genuinely dramatic card. Heavyweight Haze Hepi headlined with a second-round KO rematch win over Krzysztof Wiśniewski, while the loudest reaction of the night belonged to the opposite result: Townsville-born Brayden Marzona, fighting in front of his hometown crowd, was dropped twice and stopped in the first round by Boaz Kapua. Elsewhere on the card, Josh "Kamikaze" Kuhne, Darcy Braine and Sebastian Temesi all picked up wins — the kind of night that explains why BKFC is convinced Australia is ready for more of this, and why Brisbane is next.

Brisbane now gets the follow-up, with Feldman's presence underlining how seriously BKFC is treating the Australian market as it keeps expanding into new territories.

Getting there

BKFC Fight Night Australia takes over Eatons Hill Hotel on Saturday 3 October 2026, with doors from 5pm. Tickets are on sale now through Ticketek, with general admission, reserved seating and VIP options available for anyone wanting to get close to the action.

For Brisbane fight fans who've only caught BKFC through a screen, this is the rare chance to see the full spectacle live — production, atmosphere and all — without leaving the city.

BKFC is a regulated, medically-supervised combat sport.