“The Trigon” cage delivered at “BYB Brawl 1”: 9 bare-knuckles fights

MIAMI: “The Trigon” cage debut more than lived up to its advance billing during the April 5th “BYB Brawl 1: Brawl For It ALL” pay-per-view card, promoted by BYB Extreme Series, at the Cheyenne Ice & Event Center in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Bare-knuckles fighting has now been revolutionized by BYB’s unique triangular cage: 7′ high fences, two beveled corners and a 60-degree, tight third-corner forming a triangle, totaling 187 square feet. Not only did it mark the first time a professional bare-knuckles event was held inside a cage, it was also the inaugural event in which bare-knuckles and MMA fighting were held inside a cage.

There was nowhere to run, nowhere to hide, for fighters in “The Trigon”, combat sports’ most confrontational cage, essentially taking the final outcomes out of the judges’ hands and allowing fighters to be the ultimate determinants.

Judges were barely needed. There were only 13 total rounds fought in nine bare-knuckle fights. None went the full distance – five 3-minutes rounds (2 in the female match) — with six fights ending in the opening round, including the main event, which was declared a “no contest” due to an accidental eye poke suffered by Bobby “Zombie” Brents against Josh “Dempsey” Gormley. Two bare-knuckle fights ended in the second round, one in the third.

The KO of the Night, arguably the KO of the Year in bare-knuckles fighting, came suddenly in the opening round of the co-featured event, when Nebraska MMA fighter Matt “MFD” Delanoit put Canadian kick-boxer Jake “The Goon” Young to sleepbefore his body hit the canvas by way of a dramatic, single-punch that landed square on the button.

In the two mixed-martials-arts matches, one ended in the opening round and the other was a three-round technical decision, because 308 ½-pound Lamar “The Abomination” Cannady-Foster crashed through the cage door entrance in a super heavyweight bout against 284 1/4-pound Jermayne “Redman” Barnes, Barnes blocked a leg kick and his forward momentum knocked Cannady-Foster through the cage door entrance and onto the stairs leading into the cage. Cannady-Foster was physically unable to continue fighting and, according to Wyoming commission rules, the result went to the judges’ scorecards and Barnes was awarded a win by way of a third-round unanimous decision.

“It was a great night with lots of action,” BYB Extreme president Mike Vazquez commented. “We had KOs, TKOs, a tap-out and even a super heavyweight fly out of the cage; fortunately, he (Lamar Cannady-Foster) nor anybody cage-side was injured. Lamar was sent to the hospital to undergo a battery of test and X-rays, all of which came back negative. I should mention that the gate was not left open and it did not break. The cage door flexed as a result of the massive force imposed on it by the two super heavyweights who flew towards it from a few yards away. I wasn’t not a physics major, but I know that their weight and speed generated force far greater than their combined with of 600 pounds. We will none-the-less work with our cage manufacturer to extend the door-lock pins further in order to avoid any possibility of having that occur again.

“We may also consider not having such heavy MMA fighters in ‘The Trigon’. We had two MMA fights to mix it up for combat sports fans who like both bare knuckle and MMA fighting and to be the first to ever offer both in the same night and cage. But that’s not really the direction BYB Extreme is going. Our bare-knuckle fights in ‘The Trigon’ cage had fans standing and cheering all night. All but one concluded in a KO or TKO and that one-fight exception (Dempsey vs. Brents) surely would have ended the same way, absent the accidental eye poke.”

“BYB Brawl 1: Brawl For It ALL”, presented by title sponsor Pure and Natural (www.getpureandnatural.com), was the first sanctioned-event promoted by BYB Extreme Series (BYB), bare-knuckles fighting’s most intense combat sports promoter. BYB’s next event will be held this summer on a date and at a venue to be determined. Iconic back-yard brawler Dada 5000, who was a post-fight interviewer on last Saturday evening’s PPV event, announced that he will fight for the first time in more than 3 1/2 years at “BYB Brawl 2”.

Special guest Koal Livingston, Professional Bull Rider (PBR) favorite, is shown here with Dada 5000. Livingston was inspired by the BYB action he witnessed, carrying that emotion over to a first-place PBR finish last weekend in Bakersfield, California.

The replay of “BYB Brawl 1: Brawl for it ALL” is scheduled to watch on the FITE.TV for $9.99.

“BYB Brawl 1” official results:

BARE KNUCKLES

MAIN EVENT – HEAVYWEIGHTS BK
Josh Gormley, Miami, FL
“No Contest” 1
Bobby Brents, Springfield, IL

CO-FEATURE – WELTERWEIGHTS
Matt Delanoit, Omaha, NE
WTKO1 (0:49)
Jake Young, London, Ontario, Canada

CRUISERWEIGHTS
Joey Angelo, Las Vegas, NV
WTKO1 (1:00)
Joseph Guillen, Red Springs, WY

Lorenzo Hunt, Jacksonville, FL
WTKO3 (1:00)
Robert Brown, Jr., Atlanta, GA

LIGHT HEAVYEWIGHTS
Leo Pla, Parker, CO
WKO1 (3:00)
Billy Martin, Casper, WY

MIDDLEWEIGHTS
Mike Trujillo, Miami, FL
WKO1 (2:20)
Alphonso Frierson, Miami, FL

WELTERWEIGHTS
John Michael Escoboza, Coconut Creek, FL by way of Dominican
WKO2 (0:20)
Brian Jackson, Cheboygan, MI

BANTAMWEIGHTS
Albert Martinez, Valdosta, GA
WTKO1 (2:23)
Robert Fletcher, Park Rapids, MN

FEMALE BANTAMWEIGHTS
Christine Stanley, Lakebay, WA
WTKO2
Latoya Burton, Ashville, NC

MMA

SUPER HEAVYWEIGHTS
Jermayne Barnes, Fort Lauderdale, FL
WDEC3 (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
Lamar Cannady-Foster, Detroit, MI

HEAVYWEIGHTS
Jamelle Jones, Coeur d’Alene, ID
WSUB1 (1:24)
Matt Kovacs, Everett, WA