It turns out Bare Knuckle FC (BKFC) isn’t getting the return on their investment as far as Paige VanZant is confirmed.
VanZant was one of BKFC’s high-profile captures following her release from the UFC last year. The former strawweight would make her debut at the promotion’s Knucklemania event against Britain Hart in February.
While nobody expected even a quarter of a million buys for the event, there certainly did seem like there was genuine interest to see how VanZant would fare in bare knuckle action.
However, she would go on to lose a unanimous decision in what was not the best start to her new career in the bare knuckle world.
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BKFC Event Did Poorly In Terms Of Buys
To make matters worse for BKFC, the event reportedly didn’t do so well at all.
As per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (via BJ Penn), the Knucklemania event only did 5,000 pay-per-view (PPV) buys on television.
Other reports state that it did 20,000 digitally which would bring the total to 25,000 which is decent, if anything, but still lower than what one would expect.
For context, the trilogy between Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell promoted by Golden Boy was estimated to have done 40,000 buys.
More than anything, it’s a bad investment for BKFC if VanZant was correct when she claimed she was making $400,000.
Surely the buys will go up dramatically if VanZant ends up facing new signing Rachael Ostovich in a rematch?
