Matt “The Silencer” Guymon is prepared to do battle with former junior lightweight titlist Jamel “Semper Fi” Herring in a bare knuckle fight when they throw hands at BKFC 86 on Jan. 17th at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connectcut, to be streamed live on DAZN. Herring is the most recent champion from professional gloved boxing to transition to bare knuckle fighting. BKFC 86 marks his bare knuckles debut. Prior to amassing a 24-5 record in professional gloved boxing, Herring represented the United States in the ring at the 2012 Olympic Games.
Guymon has a lot of respect for Herring’s accomplishments in athletics, but he’s ready to show that BKFC is a different beast. “It’s drastically different,” the fan-favorite from Wichita, Kansas says.“Gloved boxing can best be described as a sport. Bare knuckle fighting is a sport too, of course, but it’s much, much closer to a real fight.”
Guymon (2-1) will be making his third trip to the BKFC squared circle after most recently going five rounds and losing via majority decision to “Royal” Ryan Reber in May. “He thinks that five two-minute rounds will be a cake walk, but within those two minutes it’s total chaos, and you can’t take a second off,” Guymon says. “I don’t see it going to round five.”
Guymon hopes an impressive victory over his highly touted challenger will earn him the next shot at undefeated BKFC bantamweight (135-pound) champion Justin “Joy Boy” Ibarrola. “I think that’s the only bigger fight in the division right now,” he says. “Herring is one of the biggest names to transition to BKFC in a while. After an impressive win over him, with the resume that he has, I think the only thing that makes sense after that is a title shot.”
The stakes have never been higher for Guymon, but he’s just rolling with the punches. “I think he’ll be feeling a lot more pressure than I do,” Guymon says. “Yeah, I have the bare knuckle background, but it’s really only nine total rounds, and he’s a world champion boxer. I think the pressure’s on him a lot more than it is on me. I just need to go out there and do my job.”
