James DeGale Wins In His BKFC Debut

James DeGale, the former IBF super middleweight champion, beat Matt Floyd on his BKFC debut at BKFC 81 via a unanimous decision: 48-43, 48-43, 47-44. 

DeGale was the superior fighter, showing off his boxing skill in the first round, as the jab landed on numerous occasions. However, Floyd was penalized several times for fouls. Following the end of the first round, Floyd headbutted DeGale, leading to the referee intervening and deducting two points. That only gave DeGale more resolve, as he continued to punish his opponent. However, Floyd put DeGale in a headlock in the third round, resulting in another point deduction. DeGale also lost a point late in the round for throwing a shot after the break. Despite this, DeGale’s superior skill got him the win. 

Post-Fight

“It’s bare-knuckle boxing, it’s highly different. The holding, punching, it’s crazy! Crazy stuff. But do you know what? I’m 1-0 in bare-knuckle. JD’s second coming. He’s tough, he’s game. In boxing, that’s his best move holding the back of the head and uppercutting. He always gets warned. In a boxing fight, he won’t last two rounds. So I thought, let me have a bare-knuckle boxing make it more even,” DeGale

“It’s an interesting puzzle in the bare-knuckle. The habit for people is to reach, we all do that, frames, yeah. I wanna see frames. It’s different, as he says, this man is an Olympic gold medallist and a former two-time world champion and he enjoyed it. It looked like he f***ing enjoyed it. Matt Floyd, great fight. That was a great fight. It’s an interesting puzzle, bare-knuckle. It’s not boxing, it’s bare-knuckle fighting,” McGregor said