Bare knuckle sport packs punch just as much as gloved boxing...

HAVE discussed various BKB shows over the past few years here in the Mail, but I feel it would be the right time to talk about the evolution of the sport of bare-knuckle boxing here in the UK and in the USA.

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Boxers Rolando Dy and Liam Rees (right) fighting for the BKB super welterwigh title in Cardiff on Saturday

I first commentated on a BKB show at the Ryton Sports Centre in Coventry in 2015 and to be perfectly honest I didn’t want to do it as I was a gloved boxing fanatic.

However, I did the show as a favour to a friend and have been there ever since. Why? Because of the fair and excellent way I was treated by the then-owners Joe Brown and Jim Freeman.

I have been there ever since and have commentated on more than 600 bare knuckle fights, mostly here but also in the USA and Thailand.

To be a part of the growth of the sport that has seen the promotion move from Ryton Sports Centre to venues such as the Coventry Skydome, the Echo Arena in Liverpool to the O2 Arena in London with venues in Wolverhampton, Bolton, Leeds Bristol and Cardiff has been an amazing journey.

Now it's back to London's O2 in February with plans for even bigger prestigious venues in the immediate future.

In those early years, I worked with huge boxing names such as Robin Reid, Glen McCrory and Enzo Macarinelli - not forgetting the inimitable Robin Black.

Now I get to work in the commentary box alongside the legendary former UFC commentator Mike Goldberg, former gloved world champion Paulie Malignaggi and Paul Smith, the former British champion who fought twice for the world super-middleweight title. How lucky am I?

Since the USA company BYB, owned by businessman Mike Vasquez, bought the majority shareholding of BKB, the sky is the limit for the sport here and in the US.

Sold-out venues and millions watching worldwide have attracted huge media companies to get involved such as talkSPORT, VICE TV and many others while many more contacting BKB on a regular basis.

It is a very special sport with a family-like atmosphere existing between the fighters past and present, owners and staff.