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NEW YORK – It was an impulse decision that took some of the shine off his promotion’s buzziest night to date.
Bare Knuckle FC president David Feldman wasn’t impressed with Rusty Crowder’s efforts – some would say lack thereof – in a unanimous-decision loss to Reggie Barnett last month at BKFC 5. So the promoter took to the the mic in the ring after the fight and let the crowd know that half of Crowder’s purse was going to Barnett due to Crowder’s inactivity.
That promo didn’t exactly go over well, either in the audience or on social media. Never mind whether such a move would be contractually legal; most fight fans understand that even the best fighters have bad nights, and a promoter taking away half of their agreed-upon pay after training for the bout in good faith isn’t a good look.
The incident took some of the luster off an exciting card that was headlined by Artem Lobov’s thrilling win over Jason Knight in the main event.
With Lobov back in action for a grudge match with Paulie Malignaggi at BKFC 6 on June 22, Feldman has signaled that he got the message from the backlash, and that Crowder received his full purse.
“Everybody got paid what they were supposed to get,” Feldman said Monday at a BKFC 6 news conference. “And most of the fighters on the card got paid a lot more than they were supposed to get.”
That said, Feldman isn’t going to apologize for the notion that fans who pay for a fight card deserve action for their money.
“I think we got here to where we are today because of statements like that,” Feldman said. “Because these fighters know that they need to get … they’re getting paid very well, first of all. These fighters are getting paid very well. Most of them are getting paid more than they can make anywhere else in the world right now.
“So with that being said, I demand action. I demand action not for me, I demand action for the fans. The fans are paying for this. The fans deserve the action they’re supposed to get.”
If Feldman is unhappy with a fighter’s performance in the future, he’s likely to handle things differently.
“I probably shouldn’t have made that statement in the ring, as I made it,” Feldman said. “I probably should have handled it, they way I should have handled it (was) in the dressing room, behind the scenes.”
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