Gaston Reyno inked a deal with Combate Americas less than two weeks before the UFC decided to visit Uruguay in 2019, and the heartbreak of not fighting in his home country has lingered to this day. Now fighting for BKFC, Reyno hopes to carry the promotion to South America in 2026.
Victorious in three BKFC bouts since ending his MMA journey in 2019, Reyno views that as the biggest goal for his professional career.
“What I would love is to bring BKFC to Uruguay,” Reyno told MMA Fighting. “BKFC was in every continent, almost, but it wasn’t in South America. That’s crazy. We have big fans there. Argentina, Peru, Chile, but where I’m from Uruguay, I know we are not many people, 3 million people, 12 million cows—it’s a lot of cows there, not many people—but the people are incredibly loyal. So I know for sure If we make an event there, we’ll have a sold-out stadium.”
Reyno said he wasn’t able to even attend UFC Uruguay after signing with Combate Americas, and it has long been his dream to fight on that arena. He’s grateful for Combate Americas because it ultimately led to his career as a commentator and “it was the best option I had in that moment.”
“I put the signature there and that didn’t let me get into the UFC,” Reyno said. “But now I have the opportunity to go back to that stadium. When I watched that event, that I couldn’t [watch in the arena] because of the contract, I was watching the girl I loved getting married with someone else. That’s how I felt, you know? I cried. I was like, man, I wish I was there, I deserved to be there. I didn’t deserve it that moment, I was just doing my career.
“But now I feel I have the opportunity to go to the same place, to sell more tickets, to be the main event and not be in the preliminary card, and to make something big for my country because maybe this time is not the only time they go, maybe BKFC wanna go every year and that will be great for the future of the martial artists there. For the Brazilians, for the Argentinians, for the Chileans, for the Peruvians — one of the best ever to do it is from Peru, [Luis] Palomino.”
Reyno had still hoped to be part of the UFC show in Montevideo despite his deal with Combate Americas.
“I thought [Combate Americas and UFC] were going to do an arrangement,” Reyno said. “I even went there and had meetings with the people from Antel, the company that owns the stadium. They invited me to see the Cirque du Soleil, they brought me backstage. They say, ‘Oh, here is going to be your locker room.’ And I imagined everything, I visualize everything, and then when it didn’t happen, it broke my heart.
“But you never know, life is crazy. Then one year later, I was commentating the UFC. I was the UFC commentator for all Latin America. And I did it for five years. Saturday is my last one because now it’s started with Paramount. But I did crazy things with UFC. So maybe I had the opportunity there, I get beat and never again, you know? I don’t want to say any name, but some of the guys that were in that card, where are they? You know, life, God, I don’t know, destiny plays in ways that we don’t know.”
Reyno’s final night as a UFC commentator will be Saturday’s UFC Vegas 112 show that features Manel Kape vs. Brandon Royval in the main event, with ESPN’s UFC deal coming to an end. Reyno will continue working for ESPN — and thanks the network for making him “a real man with a real job.”
Already done as a MMA fighter and in love with the BKFC action, Reyno believes the bare-knuckle boxing promotion can make a splash in Latin American with names like Luis Palomino and Franco Tenaglia.
“Imagine Franco Tenaglia fighting Austin Trout in Uruguay,” Reyno said. “I would love to be the co-main, or even the first fight of the card, I don’t care. But make it a big event for Latin America.”
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