Joe Lauzon made the most of his bare-knuckle debut while fighting at home in Fenway Park in Boston.
The longtime UFC veteran decided to end his hiatus from combat sports and return for a fight in BKFC after the promotion announced plans to hold an event in the historic baseball stadium. The 42-year-old veteran didn’t look like he skipped a beat as he came out guns blazing against Stash Kuykendall on Saturday night.
Right away, Lauzon pushed Kuykendall back towards the ropes and he immediately started digging to the body with hard shot before unloading a right hand that ended in a knockdown. With Kuykendall obviously still hurt, Lauzon just kept coming forward and blasting away with huge punches including another right hand that scored a second knockdown.
Lauzon earned one more knockdown but ran out of time in the first round to potentially end the fight.
On the restart, Lauzon wasted no time putting Kuykendall down again and it was clear the writing was on the wall that this fight wasn’t going to last much longer.
In the next exchange, Lauzon uncorked a hellacious left hand that twisted Kuykendall’s head around and he went face first down to the canvas. To his credit, Kuykendall did manage to get back to his feet but he was so badly damaged the referee Dan Miragliotta had no choice but to stop the fight with the end coming at 49 seconds into the second round.
Afterwards, Lauzon seemed to make it clear this was a one-and-done for him in bare-knuckle fighting unless BKFC decides to make a return trip to Boston in the future.
“We always fight like it’s a car crash,” Lauzon said after the win. “I felt like I hit him pretty good. I’ve got a swollen eye but that’s the way it goes. If you come back to Fenway, we’ll talk about it.”
Lauzon has always been a fan-favorite and he definitely had the home crowd on his side on Saturday for his bare-knuckle debut. It seems unlikely that he’ll be back again but Lauzon lived out a dream fighting at Fenway Park and he leaves with a 1-0 record in BKFC.
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