BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing heads to Tijuana on Saturday, September 19, with a 12-fight BKB 59 card led by two world-title bouts at Auditorio Municipal. The event is the promotion’s first in Mexico and its first show staged outside the United States and United Kingdom, with Zanfer Promotions serving as its local promotional partner.
Tijuana’s Julian “Pit Bull Jr” Fernandez will make the first defence of his BKB Super Cruiserweight World Championship against Britain’s Dan “Big Pod” Podmore in the main event. Mexico’s Cecy Ulloa then meets American fighter Andy “The CrAsian” Nguyen for the vacant BKB Super Flyweight World Championship in the co-main event.
BKB 59
Fernandez enters his hometown headline fight unbeaten at 3-0 with three knockouts, according to BKB’s announced card. His title-winning performance came against England’s Alex Wilson, whom Fernandez stopped with a right hand to claim the belt. The September 19 bout puts him in front of a Tijuana crowd for his first championship defence.
Podmore brings the deeper bare-knuckle resume. The British contender is listed at 9-4 with eight knockouts and is a former BKB champion across three weight divisions. The matchup pairs a champion whose three wins have all ended inside the distance with a challenger who has spent years competing at title level in the promotion.
The second title fight gives Ulloa a chance to become the inaugural BKB Super Flyweight World Champion. Ulloa, from Puerto Vallarta, is listed at 2-1 with one knockout. Nguyen, a South Carolina-based American known as “The CrAsian,” arrives for her second BKB title opportunity, with reports listing her BKB mark as 1-1. The belt is vacant, so the winner leaves Tijuana as champion rather than challenger.
Full BKB 59 card
The main card includes five fights:
- Julian Fernandez vs. Dan Podmore for the BKB Super Cruiserweight World Championship
- Cecy Ulloa vs. Andy Nguyen for the vacant BKB Super Flyweight World Championship
- Romario Ovalle vs. Marco “Chino” Villa at super middleweight
- Pablo Felipe Anguiano vs. Ricardo Ramses Rueda at cruiserweight
- Adrian Gonzalez vs. Javier Santiago Valverde at lightweight
The preliminary BKB 59 TikTok Special Attraction Bouts: (TikTok.com/@bkbbareknuckle)
- Felipe Abraham Huerta vs. Erick Eduardo Soria at lightweight
- Jonathan Duran vs. Kevin Millan Sanchez at heavyweight
- Jesus Navarrete vs. Jose Munoz at heavyweight
- Jovani Misael Sanchez vs. Ramon Olivas at super heavyweight
- Sergio Zarate vs. Rolando Parades at super middleweight
- Jesus Rodriguez vs. Ricardo Ibarra at super welterweight
- Eduardo Pineda Gonzalez vs. Mauricio Anaya at super welterweight
Once the main event concludes, BKB 59 will continue with a seven-fight preliminary slate.
BKB announced its Zanfer partnership on July 1, linking the bare-knuckle promotion with one of Latin America’s most established boxing companies. The arrangement was introduced as a multi-event plan rather than a one-night deal, with future live events, broadcast distribution and commercial opportunities in Latin America among the stated aims.
That makes BKB 59 more than a stop on the schedule. Fernandez defending in his home city gives the first Mexican event a local championship focal point, while Ulloa’s title fight places a second Mexican athlete in a featured role. The show also brings BKB’s Trigon ring format to a country with a long history in boxing and combat sports.
BKB 59 takes place at Auditorio Municipal in Tijuana on Saturday, September 19. The main card begins at 6 p.m. PT, with the seven-fight preliminary card scheduled to run after the two title fights and the rest of the main-card action, called the BKB 59 TikTok Special Attraction Bouts.
