Connor Tierney and Rico Franco will run it back for their rematch this weekend, as an undercard combatant at BKFC 90 has weighed in on that headlining bout. In Birmingham on May 30th, Tierney vs. Franco II will transpire for the interim BKFC welterweight belt.
The combatant who offered his thoughts on this looming championship contest is George Hillyard, who is crossing over from BKB Bare Knuckle, and he is booked to battle Luke Brassfield in the coming days. This will take place on the same event that will also feature Darren Till’s BKFC debut in the evening’s co-main event. The first fight between Franco and Tierney took place in BKB which, as mentioned, is where Hillyard was also plying his trade in gloveless combat.
It was a pretty quick outing in the opening battle between the pair of UK standouts, and when asked if he saw the Tierney-Franco rematch going a great deal differently at BKFC 90, Hillyard said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, I do. I do. Well, I don’t see it being the same way as [the first fight]. I still see it being the same victorious, but I don’t think it’ll be as quick as what people think it’s going to be, if that makes sense. I think we’ll see a little bit more action from it. “
BKFC 90 Connor Tierney vs. Rico Franco II: A Historical Overview
Connor Tierney vs. Rico Franco II is quite the intriguing sequel clash, and there are some notable moving parts to observe ahead of BKFC 90. In a contest that emanated from Indigo at the O2 in Greenwich, Franco and Tierney would do battle for the first time on March 19th, 2019. At BKB 16 in the prizefighter lightweight semi-final, ‘Bon Bon’ would earn one of his sweeter victories within bare knuckle boxing.
Franco would finish Tierney with a knockout that took place mere seconds into the bout and advanced the former to the prizefighter tournament finals, which Franco would win outright against modern-day icon of the game, James Connelly.
That loss saw Tierney take his first defeat within bare-knuckle boxing, but now they are running it back under a new promotional banner and in a new decade, no less. Both combatants have held European and UK gold within Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, and despite Franco previously contending for world gold, neither has captured a world championship in BKFC. That all changes this weekend when the two engage in a classic dance of ‘repeat or revenge’ with the interim strap at 165 pounds being awarded to the winner.
