BKFC 90: Tierney vs. Franco II is set to transpire on May 30th for the BKFC interim welterweight crown, and a former conqueror of Franco has weighed in on the high-stakes title bout. The combatant in question is LT Nelson, who recently defended his BKB middleweight crown against United Kingdom-based slugger Mark Tiffin at BKB 53 via emphatic knockout.
Nelson has quite the history of fighting standout UK fighters, with his first bare-knuckle boxing match being against Rico Franco where ‘Smash’ secured a huge scalp over an already established vet in ‘BonBon’. Nelson stopped Franco at BYB 10 in the second stanza of their Mighty Trigon clash in May 2022. Franco already had accolades such as being BKB’s Prizefighter lightweight tournament champion, where Rico ‘BonBon’ Franco halted Tierney with a quick first round KO at BKB 16 in March 2019.
With Franco’s upcoming rematch with Connor Tierney where they’re running it back in BKFC this time, when asked how he sees that sequel fight playing out between Tierney and Franco, several years after their initial meeting, Nelson said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I’m not really sure. I don’t pay huge, huge attention to all of that. But I know Rico Franco’s a gangster. Since that first fight, if he’s like me, he’s working and getting better all the time. I’m not really big on watching that [Connor] Tierney guy fight. So I’m not really; don’t really know much about him. But I know he’s a badass. I’ve heard good things.”
BKFC will have a “technical toe-to-toe war” with Tierney vs. Franco 2, per ‘smash’ nelson
As he kept digging into this looming interim BKFC title clash at 165 pounds in the United Kingdom next month, Nelson continued [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Rico, it’s just; that’s going to be another banger. You know what I’m saying? I know both of them are going to try to stand toe to toe to toe, but they do have good boxing technique and stuff. So, it’ll be a different kind of technical toe-to-toe war if you will. Big, big power to Rico. I think Rico can take that. He’s a G, man. He’s got lots of skills and the best to him.”
