Getty Jorge Masvidal & Nate Diaz
Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) president Dave Feldman recently revealed that the promotion was eyeing free agents Nate Diaz and ex-UFC lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez.
With Diaz no longer under the UFC banner and Alvarez’s stint with ONE Championship over, the two mixed martial artists are arguably the two hottest free agents in the market. And Feldman spoke with MMA Fighting about his desire to acquire both men, which could lead to an epic face-off between the notable names.
First, Feldman gave his take on Diaz. The BKFC president acknowledged that Diaz might not be interested in bare-knuckle competition. And further, Feldman noted that a potential boxing match with Jake Paul was looming.
But, should Diaz decide to sign with BKFC, Feldman would be interested in setting up a showdown between the fighter from Stockton, California, and fellow former UFC star Mike Perry.
“The money’s on the table for him,” Feldman said. “It’s just a matter now of does he want to fight bare knuckle? That’s all it really is. I’m confident he can make more money with us than he can anywhere else, even fighting Jake Paul. Because if you know what he’s been paying those guys, they’ve been making decent money, don’t get me wrong. The pay-per-views have been doing decent and he can get some upside but I think if he fought a guy like Mike Perry with bare knuckles, I think that’s probably his most popular option out there that he’s going to get the most eyeballs on that.
“He could get more on Jake Paul but I think people are getting tired of — not Jake Paul but Jake Paul fighting someone he’s supposed to beat. Not that he was supposed to beat Anderson Silva. I’ll tell you he looked very good in that fight and ended up dropping Anderson Silva, which really, really impressed me, but we’re talking about Nate now. Nate is someone I’d love to get. It’s someone that I think if he could crossover to this he would bring a lot of MMA fans into this organization and I think it would be great acquisition.”
Feldman told the outlet that he was scheduled to speak with Diaz next week.
Feldman Said the Promotion Was ‘Talking’ With Alvarez, Hopes to Know About Potential Partnership Next Week
Another person Feldman said he’d be talking to next week is Alvarez, who he called a “legend.”
“We’re talking to [Eddie Alvarez],” Feldman said. “He has a couple other options on the table. It’s a hard choice for him. He’s a guy who’s a legend in MMA and going over to bare knuckle, like a lot of these guys, he’s not really at the end of his career — I’m not going to say he’s in the prime of his career but he’s not at the end where he has no other options.
“He has options with all the other MMA organizations in the world but it is something that we’re talking about and we hope to have an answer early next week. We did our job to try to get him over to BKFC and if that works, that’s great. I like him. He’s a fellow Philly guy so that would be amazing to have someone like that on our roster but we’ll know within the next week.”
Alvarez & Diaz Are at the Latter Part of Their Respective Careers
Both Alvarez and Diaz have been competing at a high level for years. But with “The Underground King” being 38 and Diaz at 37, the two fighters are in the latter stage of their respective careers. Diaz ended his UFC run on a high note in September when he bested Tony Ferguson via fourth-round submission at UFC 279.
Most recently, Alvarez went 1-3 with one no-contest as a ONE combatant. His last match occurred in April 2021 when he dropped a unanimous decision to Rae Yoon Ok.