Jamel Herring and Nate Maness are set to clash for the vacant bantamweight championship at BKFC 89 on May 22nd and a former two time title challenger for the BKFC 135 pound crown has weighed in on that fight. The combatant in question is Ryan Reber who clashes with former BKB Bare Knuckle title challenger Joshua Oxendine at BKFC Clearwater tonight.
This battle of former title contenders across different bare knuckle promotions not only makes for an exciting fight but also a possible title eliminator. When touching upon the next bantamweight title clash in BKFC in the coming weeks and how this fight could vault him there potentially, Reber said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“When I do get [Joshua Oxendine] out of the way, yeah, I would hope that they would put me up against the winner of [Jamel] Herring versus [Nate] Maness. Either one of those fights really intrigue me because those are really decorated guys, you know what I mean? So it’s not like fighting a Justin Ibarrola or another guy that came up through the rankings. It’s actually fighting a guy that’s got a real complete resume. So you take a guy like that out, that to me is better than the world title. But then it’s winning the world title on top of it.”
“So it’s like a double whammy and they got everything to lose in the fight. You know what I mean? Like you’re losing to a guy like me that may have more bare knuckle experience than you but doesn’t have more experience in what he’s done in the combat world. You know what I mean? Like Nate was a highly decorated UFC guy. Then you got Herring who was a highly decorated boxer and you know that’s what I want right there.”
BKFC 89 Palm Desert main event breakdown cont.
Further delving into this looming Herring vs. Maness vacant title bout and how a win over ex-BKB lightweight title challenger Oxendine tonight could possibly give him a “third time’s the charm” kind of opportunity, Reber continued [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“So that would definitely be something I’d be gunning for next. I’m gonna pay and it’s kind of the same boat. I mean, you look at Herring, 1 and 0. Then you look at Nate, he hasn’t even had a fight at 135 yet [laughs]. You know what I mean? He fought f***ing [Tyler] Randall who was a 125er. Like, I give him that fight, you know what I mean? Of course, because a fight’s a fight, but I mean, it’s not too impressive of a win. I mean, those guys literally got that chance because of who they are outside of the bare knuckle sport.”
