BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing contracts some of the top fighters in the world of gloveless combat today, but just who is on the promotion’s Mount Rushmore? Marko Martinjak is a great individual to ask this sort of question, as he has captured multiple belts across several divisions and is someone who is immediately thought of in this ‘four faces, founding fathers’ sort of oft-used context.
The Croatian powerhouse has been with BKB since the prior regime’s existence in the UK before the former BYB Extreme acquired the organization and changed the name to BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing. Martinjak is literally a day one combatant with his first fight with the company transpiring at their inaugural event.
Discussing his thoughts on the top pound-for-pound names in the Vice TV Bare Knuckle Boxing broadcast entity while invoking the name of a tenured combat sports media member out of the United Kingdom, Martinjak said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I just talked with Gareth A. Davies yesterday. He said the Mount Rushmore of BKB [is] me, Gustavo Trujillo, LT ‘Smash’ Nelson, and Cub Hawkins. I couldn’t say no because I agree with him on that.”
BKB’s top four and what they’re presently up to
These four faces in Bare Knuckle Boxing will be kicked off with Gustavo Trujillo, who currently holds gold in both gloved and bare-knuckle boxing with WBC and WBO Latino heavyweight titles in his possession, concurrent with his Police Gazette diamond hardware.
Martinjak mentioned during the Bare Knuckle Bowker chat above that he was hearing rumblings regarding a possible Kamil Sokolowski fight being next for Trujillo inside the Trigon later in the Summer. As for Martinjak himself, he is on the heels of a huge KO of former BKB heavyweight champ Ike Villanueva that saw ‘Marvelous’ Marko defend his bridgerweight belt. LT ‘Smash’ Nelson currently holds the BKB super middleweight as well as middleweight crowns with a super welterweight bout scheduled for July at BKB 56 in Los Angeles.
Cub Hawkins has held cruiserweight and light heavyweight gold in the Mighty Trigon, riding a five-fight win streak with defenses logged of both belts. Hawkins recently bested ex-UFC vet Jesse Ronson in Q1 of this year, and some wonder if a cross-divisional superfight with the aforementioned ‘Smash’ Nelson is in the cards for him.
