Denys Berinchyk and his wild ride to becoming a world champion boxer.
(Photo Courtesy: Top Rank)
It was a historical weekend for Ukrainian sports as Oleksandr Usyk became the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world in defeating Tyson Fury, and Denys Berinchyk became WBO lightweight champion with his win over Emanuel Navarrete.
In the case of both fights, there are ties to the world of bare knuckle. Fury, of proud Irish Traveller decent, comes from a long line of bare knuckle fighters and has long been a supporter of the sport. Fury’s outlandish smack talk and unhinged Instagram live callouts over the years have a clear reference point in the VHS tapes and DVDs Travellers sent one another to bait one another into fights.
His successor, Usyk, seems to have a fondness for it as well. Back in 2022, he proposed a bare knuckle streetfight against Fury, and last year in the wake of the low blow controversy in his bout against Daniel Dubois, suggested the two have a bare knuckle rematch.
Perhaps even more interesting is Usyk’s close friend Berinchyk’s ties to bare knuckle, having successfully competed in it back in 2021. Not long after his 2021 win over Jose Sanchez, the Olympic silver medalist, Berinchyk called out Artem Lobov of BKFC fame for a bare knuckle bout. The two did indeed fight later that year in Mahatch FC, a Russian bare knuckle organization where the ring is a collection of burlap sacks or hay bales, and the fighters have the option of wearing jeans rather than trunks or shorts.
Berinchyk scored a fourth-round TKO victory over Lobov, who famously defeated former world champion Paulie Malignaggi in BKFC. Although the first round of the fight was competitive, Berinchyk’s accuracy and speed became too much for Lobov rather quickly, and Lobov’s face was a hideous mess by the end of the bout. The boxing acumen for Beinchyk, who at that time was very much an active top contender at 135 in gloved boxing, came as no surprise. What was surprising was his ability to not just negate, but often times control Lobov in clinching situations, never really allowing Lobov to bully him against the hay.
With his win over Navarrete on Saturday night on ESPN, Berinchyk became the first fighter of the modern era to have competed in bare knuckle and then gone on to win a world title in gloved boxing. Thus far, we’ve seen fighters go the other direction—former world champs competing in bare knuckle, such as Malignaggi, Austin Trout, DeMarcus Corley and more.
However, Berinchyk’s win poses an interesting question moving forward: Will we see more fighters simply oscillate between the two styles of boxing?
There are some modern examples, of course, of fighters attempting to reach Berinchyk’s unique feat. The closest in recent times is Sonya Dreiling, one of the stars of BYB’s women’s ranks, who also holds sanctioning body rankings in gloved boxing. Dreiling is a former Golden Gloves champion, and has had recent fights with Mary Spencer and Oshae Jones for regional titles. Though Dreiling was stopped in both contests, a win in either one of them realistically would have netted her a world title opportunity. Several years back, motivated by a stalled career, Olympic medalist Nico Hernandez began to get active in BKFC while still being a very real prospect with gloves on.
The financials of Berinchyk’s foray into bare knuckle are not known, and it’s possible that he simply took the bout out of competitive curiosity, but it’s more likely that there was a healthy sum in the bag for him to throw on a pair of Levis and throw down bare fisted. The financials of top level BKFC fights these days are known however, and sums like the $600,000 given to Mike Perry for his KnuckleMania bout would be compelling to all but the wealthiest of pro boxers competing today.
(Photo Courtesy: Top Rank)
Fighters like Berinchyk actively holding world titles may not view the risk-reward ratio as being in their favor to cross over and moonlight in bare knuckle, but prospects, contenders, and former champions still in the title mix very well could. As an industry that still values crossover stars and the legitimacy they lend to the still-growing sport (albeit the fastest-growing sport next to pickleball, don’t you forget!), there will be money out there for a prime boxer to jump over, or jump back and forth.
Trout, who holds BKFC’s welterweight title, has shown what an educated jab and check hook can do for you in the bare knuckle game. However, other fighters like Corley or Malignaggi haven’t fared quite as well. That said, the potential money being offered for a maximum of ten minutes of work in a five round fight could be very compelling despite the obvious physical risks.
(Photo Courtesy: Top Rank)
Ultimately, fighters are also self-marketers, and a trip over to bare knuckle boulevard has its pros and cons compared to say, dabbling in MMA the way Claressa Shields, Amanda Serrano and now Savannah Marshall are doing. MMA is rightfully viewed very separately from boxing, and although a loss for any high-level boxer in MMA would bring about some memes and some antiquated “this is real fighting” needling from hardcore MMA tribalists, in reality a loss in an octagon would do nothing to harm one’s boxing legacy. Bare knuckle however, despite its intricacies, is still just boxing, which makes it both an easier transition but also a bigger reputational risk should one lose in their dalliance with danger.
For now, the bare knuckle game can boast that a 1-0 fighter is one of the best lightweights on the planet with gloves on.