David Mundell Knocks Out Mike Richman At BKFC-47 To Retain The Middleweight World Championship

BKFC was back. Back In Lakeland that is for BKFC-47. Headlining Friday night’s card was two Championship fights and 7 other battles in the ring that thrilled the sold-out crowd.

The first preview fight got underway right at the scheduled 8pm start time as the crowd was still entering the RP Funding Center. Those that were in their seats jumped out of them as Michael Lattimore sent Daniel “Black Mamba” Gary to the showers early in round one. 

After the opening bell sounded, both fighters went quickly into the center of the ring to exchange knuckles. After a ten punch fury, Lattimore ducked a swooping right hand by Gary and returned with a tornado left hand from the belt line that hit Gary cleanly and sent him to the canvas for the ten count.  What a start to another great card in Lakeland.

Next up was Clearwater’s own Ja’Far Fortt Knox at 162.6 pounds vs. Tim “Homelander” Hester who weighed in at 165.6. Hester started the fight off quick by going to Fortt’s body and got him with a low blow that paused the fight for a bit. 

Fortt recovered but then got smacked with a straight left that put him down at the 1-minute mark of round one which got Fortt Knos’s attention. Both fighters connected numerous times as the bell rang at the end of round one.   

We had an “untintentional” intentional scoop slam by Hester that highlighted the second round but with 12 seconds to go in the third round a big left hand by Fortt Knox dropped Homelander for good. As Fortt’s hand was raised, he was smiles galore with Hester extremely disappointed with the result.

2 preliminary fights down and two extremely entertaining knockouts. That’s why you get to BKFC events on time to catch all the battles.

The Main Card got underway with the ladies getting in the ring to put on a show for the fans as Crystal “The Rugged Beauty” Pittman, 132.1 vs. Toni Tallman, 130.8

“The Rugged Beauty” controlled the first round and threw the much harder punches and landed a lot more damage than Tallman. Pittman kept the pressure on and continued to do damage that Tallman’s face couldn’t continue to take and the referee stopped the fight at 1:07 in the second. Her lack of experience was evident, and it was shown by the damage her face displayed as she walked backstage.

Tony Murphy, 175.4 vs. Michael Jones, 174.8 turned out to be a rough and tumble brawl early and often throughout the whole fight with Jones throwing looping haymakers and uppercuts.

Murphy countered with jabs and big shots of his own and when pressured, Murphy would underhook Jone’s arms which tied up Jones or Murphy would through him down. After this happened again in the second round, Referee Dan Miragliotta gave Murphy a warning.

In the third as Murphy continued to apply pressure to Jones and push him around physically using some level of wrestling or mma training, Jones committed the mortal sin by turning his back on Murphy.

Murphy through a hook around the back of Jones head and connected flush to his face, which dropped Jones for the ten count. Murphy remains undefeated and will be moving up in the ranks and on the fight cards in the BKFC.

Our second fight in the woman’s division took place at the flyweight level between Martyna Krol, 126 vs. Gabrielle Roman, 120.2.

What started out as a bit of a feeling out kind of 1^st round with minimal punches thrown, turned into a big victory for Gabrielle Roman.

Both fighters moved around the ring and checked each other’s punches with Krol getting her feet tied up a couple times and falling to the canvas. Roman applied more pressure at the end of the first round and hit Krol with a body shot then a late punch to the face as Krol was bent over on the ropes. 

Referee Chris Young called the fight as Krol could not continue. She was visibly hurt not only physically but emotionally as tears fell down her face as she was consoled by her corner.

Roman’s victory and her overall aggressiveness should have her set up for a bigger matchup and I for one am interested in seeing he back in the ring. She took some good shots from Krol and kept coming at her. She’s a spitfire and is perfect for BKFC.

The Reber versus Thompson fight turned out to be the best and most controversial fight of the night. Ryan Reber from Clearwater came in undefeated with a 3-0 BKFC record and took on a smaller but more aggressive Travis Thompson. Fan favorite Reber kept his distance and worked the jab as Thompson tried to get to his ribs with flurries of punches.

Thompson continued to pressure Reber with his forward motion with Reber trying to counter the attack. Reber hit Thompson with an unintentional eye poke which put Thompson down on one knee momentarily.  Thompson continued to come forward during rounds two, three & four with Reber taking punishment.

As the fifth-round bell rang, Reber needed a knockout to win the fight as he just hadn’t done enough to combat Thompson’s advances and shots. Reber countered much better and threw more punches that connected with Thompson in the fifth, but it didn’t seem to be enough to get the home court win.

When the scorecards came back with a majority draw, some in the crowd booed the decision but were stoked to find out a 6th round would take place between the hand wrapped foes.

The overtime round went a lot like the fifth round with Reber snapping the jab and Thompson continuing to throw but missing more often than in the first four rounds.

The fight ended once again going to the scorecards with Reber’s name and arm being raised in victory. He fought a perfect fight with a ton of precision. Thompson seemed to control the ring but his face was beaten up pretty badly from the jabs but on press row, Thompson won the fight. Hands down the best fight of the night and would love to see a rematch.

The Knockout of the Night fight was up next in Lakeland as Brandon Allen came back and defeated Seth Shaffer. Both fighters got off to a slow start moving around the ring feeling each other out.

After the first minute elapsed, both fighters went inside and starting throwing punches at each other’s body. A massive exchange ensued and right at the bell, Shaffer dropped Allen with a flash right cross to the side of the head.

Allen quickly recovered and as the second round progressed early on, Allen hit Shaffer with a 1-2 combination with the second blow knocking Shaffer’s body into a twisting fall which a body isn’t supposed to do. Everyone in the room was surprised how quickly Shaffer got back up, but Allen attacked Shaffer and hit him with another right cross. Ref Chris Lewis saw enough damage and stepped in to stop the fight. 

On a side note, I’ve been covering BKFC since its inception, and Allen’s KO of Shaffer was one of the best I have ever seen in any form of combat sports.

If the RP Funding Center wasn’t already up in arms with excitement from the previous fight, the highly anticipated Jared Warren vs. Josh Dyer fight for the Interim BKFC Light Heavyweight Championship was next.

After the round 1 opening bell it was a slugfest with Dyer bull rushing Warren and connecting a few shots early but then hit Warren with a uppercut that looked like a knee.

Warren went down briefly but it was scored a knockdown.  The rest of the first was pretty even but Dyer took round one because of the aggression and knockdown.

Warren was winning the second round by a slim margin but got struck late behind the ear and was stunned badly and struggled to get to his chair. There was a delay in getting the third round started as the ref decided to take a point from Dyer.

The medical official reviewed Warren for many minutes and the fight was then declared a no-contest with the title belt remaining vacant.  It was the right choice as Warren was obviously concussed from the blow and I’m not a doctor or play one on tv.

It was unfortunate for both the fighters and the crowd, but the safety of the fighters is what’s most important. Rematch please???

The Co-Main Event was next, and the pre-fight hype was in full swing from the start. Mike “The Marine” Richman had a full squad of Marines from the Lakeland Marine Corps Detachment lead him out to the ring as AC/DC’s “Back In Black” blasted from the house speakers.

Richman came out swinging and connected on Mundell and put him down for 9 seconds and Mundell got back up to his feet.  Mundell from Oldmar, said after the fight that the knock down woke him up.

And woke him up it did, and he came back with monster shots and a knockdown of his own that rocked Richman as the round ended.

The second round was even with both fighters connecting with big shots. Mundell was connecting cleanly which lead to the first of two knockdowns. Near the end of the second, Mundell caught Richman with a shot near the back of the ear and the night for Richman ended at 1:54 into Round two.

Mundell retained the title in a major way then called out Mike Perry as that’s the only fight that makes sense for him right now. “Bring me Mike Perry, he’s the only one I want to fight next.”

BKFC brought another big night of fights to a packed house at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland. 9 action packed fights giving the fans a roller coaster of emotions and athletes that put it all on the line to have their hands raised in the ring. BKFC isn’t going away anytime soon and with cards all over the country, if you love combat sports, BKFC is for you.