A lot of effort goes into growing combat sports promotion, but one of the biggest indicators is ticket sales, and BKFC has had this on lockdown.
The promotion has a fight card scheduled in Spain on Saturday and a long line of events planned ahead of it. Although BKFC has been having a good run, its ticket sales and recorded progress are not generally recognized or talked about because of the popular UFC.
“The UFC sells tickets,” BKFC chairman David Feldman explained when speaking to MMA Fighting. “The big, big boxing matches, they sell tickets. The smaller ones, the mid-ones don’t. The mid-MMA companies are not selling tickets. Obviously, the smaller [MMA promotions] are, they’re selling 1,000 tickets. Not really selling.”
Feldman spoke about BKFC’s success over the years and its number of sellouts X. The chairman disclosed that the promotions ticket sales have steadily increased since their launch in 2018.
“It’s actually my pitch to investors,” Feldman said. “I go, ‘Listen, we’re actually one of the only promotions in the world that sells tickets.’
“We just sold 5,400 tickets this past weekend. We’re projected to sell 6,700 tickets in Spain and then Denver, we’ll probably do 4,000 tickets there and then we’re doing Poland in December and Montana. For all these shows coming up, there should really be a minimum of 4,000 tickets sold. Actually, they are sold, and that’s a big deal right now in combat sports because they’re not all sold. A lot of them are papered up.”
“Papered up” means tickets being given away for free to fill an arena, which happens quite often in combat sports.
The chairman described this as his proudest achievement, as the promotion has come a long way, from giving out tickets to selling them out in the blink of an eye.
“I won’t lie to you — I might have lied to you five years ago and said we sold 3,000 tickets when we only sold 1,000,” Feldman said. “But now we’re actually selling all our tickets.
“We might give away three or four percent of our tickets right now, but we’re selling it all.”
“We thought we were out of business ten different times. Luckily, we just found a way to make it happen and make it work,” Feldman said. “I don’t see any end in sight. I think we got a really great shot right now of knocking on the No. 1’s door.”
Despite a rocky start, BKFC has been steadily gaining ground and is considered one of the top MMA promotions. The rise in ticket sales and public recognition have led many fighters to seek a deal with BKFC. Popular among them is former UFC champion Conor McGregor. The Irishman invested in the promotion and now has a part ownership interest. He has always shown support for the promotion, and has occasionally attended some BKFC fights. McGregor will be in Spain to watch Franco Tenaglia take on Tony Soto.
Although McGregor has yet to step foot in the BKFC arena, the fighter has done a lot for the promotion in terms of publicity.
“He’s just doing phenomenal for us.” David Feldman said in an exclusive interview with bloody elbow. “When he talks, people listen. And sometimes, he says things people don’t want to hear. Sometimes, he says things that they do not want to hear. However, the one thing about Conor McGregor is that when he talks, they do listen. We have a great mouthpiece with him.”
McGregor has teased many times about making an appearance in the cage, but so far, he hasn’t made this dream come true. However, Feldman is hopeful that the fighter will make an appearance and believes a matchup with Floyd Mayweather would be perfect.
“Someone said to me, ‘What do you think about Manny Pacquiao fighting Floyd Mayweather again in boxing’? They were asking me for some help. I said, ‘I’d love to see Floyd Mayweather versus Conor McGregor in bare-knuckle because I think it’s a whole different fight, with the clinching that you can do and getting hit with the knuckles.”
