Cody East battles a former BKB heavyweight champion tonight and hopes halting the ex-bridgerweight title challenger can secure East his own crack at that crown. East discussed this on Bare Knuckle Bowker ahead of his battle with Ike Villanueva on October 23rd at BKB Bally’s Fight Night in a consequential contest at Bridgerweight.
Describing how it feels returning to bare knuckle for the first time in over a year, after having competed in boxing and mixed martial arts since that point, following his incredible throw down with Jarome Hatch last June at BKB 42, Cody East said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, I feel great. I mean, I feel good to be here and get some redemption for mistakes I made in that fight. So, I’m just here better than I have been and ready to show that tomorrow.”
When asked to further expound upon those mistakes made in the Hatch fight, Cody East stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I got tired of beating him up truthfully. I mean, I fought a good fight, just overdid it a little bit, man. I should have slowed down and picked my shots a little bit better. But after I knocked him down two times, three times I was trying to press it. I thought the fight was going to be over when I dumped it and then he survived. Then after that, I was tired.”
“So, just been working on being more disciplined and not everything has to happen instantly. Just taking my time, enjoying it, and it’ll come. I’ve just got to touch him a couple times and I’ll stop the fight. It doesn’t have to be right away.”
After mentioning how it sounds like there’s a broader life lesson piece in there about things falling into place at a later point, Cody East quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, 100%. We all want instant gratification and sometimes it’s not instant, right? We got time to work and I was there. I shouldn’t have slowed down and put my work in. That’s a fight I can win nine times out of 10. I made a mistake. He beat me and now I’m on to fighting someone that beat him last fight. So I mean, after I win this fight, maybe we could run it back. I mean, I would like to fight him again and give him a proper fight.”
As was already mentioned, Villanueva has been a BKB heavyweight champ and fought for their bridgerweight belt as well, and when delving into Villanueva’s resume as well as skillset in the Trigon, Cody East said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I think Ike is tough. I think he’s a good fighter. He’s fought some really good fighters, right? He’s fought bridgeweight champion, heavyweight champion, but they all stopped him. You know what I mean? He’s not on the same level as the pinnacle of the sport. I mean, he was at one point, but now he’s not. I feel like I am. So, I’m here to stop him as well.”
After being asked if the promotion has mentioned that a strong win here can secure him the next Bridgerweight title shot, Cody East stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“They haven’t said that, you know what I mean? But if I knock out Ike the way I should, that’s no reason. But all they’ve got to do is send me a name and I’ll fight him. I’ll fight Gustavo [Tujillo]. I wouldn’t mind fighting him either. Everybody tries to box him. No one tries to fight him. I would like to fight him. So I’m open to fight anybody from 200 to super heavyweight. So it don’t matter to me. You just got to send me the name, where to be at. I’ll make weight and I’ll show up and I’ll fight.”
After inquiring about what it is within his fighting approach that keeps generating all of these iconic bare knuckle fights that you could use as showcase pieces to draw new fans into the world of gloveless combat, Cody East quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I’m a good fighter, right? But I’m also a sucker for a bare knuckle fight. I mean, you don’t get to have that in MMA, right? Because people want to take you down, they grab you. I’ve caught myself getting a little bit wild just in fighting. I don’t need to fight like that. If it comes to a point where I feel like I’m outgunned… then I’m gonna go back to that. But I’ve made some improvements and I want to display more of what I’ve worked to accomplish this.”
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I mean, there’s a lot more to me than just throwing hard punches and going forward, right? I can fight and I want to do more of that. I want to show a little bit more of my training, not just my toughness because everybody knows I’m tough. I’m entertaining, but take a break this fight and show some skill. Next fight we could bang it out with somebody.”
Responding to the assessment that it was now about refining that bare knuckle specific fight IQ, Cody East said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“That’s it. Yeah, you got to be very accurate and it doesn’t take a lot, right? It doesn’t take a lot of shots. You just got to place your shots properly.”
Cody East on unique BKB Fisticuffs Technology and who can turn the UFC’s heavyweight division around
BKB Bally’s Fight Night is a stacked night top to bottom and is bolstered by names like Jarod Grant as well as Cub Hawkins. Responding to the depth of this Biloxi-based bare-knuckle boxing event, Cody East stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, all the fights are main event fights. I mean, like anywhere else, they’re all good fights. So it’s not a bad fight on the card.”
The Bally’s Fight Night partnership also connects BKB to Force IQ technology, which tracks the striking metrics of the Trigon combatants, and when riffing on that tendril extending from this event, Cody East quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s probably a matter of time before they’re going to fight and they have like a life bar like a video game [laughs]. It tracks your stamina and health like live action: the fighter. That’s what’s next I guess.”
When joking about how his fighting style may short circuit the technology, Cody East said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, for real. I’ll be on red. Be [laughs] on red.”
As a former UFC heavyweight, when asked if he feels a type of way that the promotion doesn’t promote the weight class the way they used to or if it’s more of a function of just how they want to run their business and he doesn’t care, Cody East said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Yeah, it’s just how they run their business. I mean it’s easy sometimes to be a heavyweight, you get lazy too. So it’s kind of how it is with heavyweights. You get some of the worst fights right but you also get some of the best knockouts and stuff. So they come hand in hand at heavyweight. I mean, you kind of know going into a heavyweight fight, you can go either way, right?”
“You’re going to have a hard 30 seconds, then you might have two fat guys rolling around the rest of the fight, or you might have a great knockout. But with Josh Hokit coming to the UFC now, I think we’re going to start seeing more guys from the NFL, more guys from the NBA, more high level athletes coming in. I think it’s really going to change a lot of the sport.”
