John Dodson just wants to fight but he can’t seem to get BKFC to give him a date much less an opponent.
Following a blistering 4-0-1 start to his bare-knuckle career, which included claiming the BKFC flyweight title, the UFC veteran was anxious to receive some news about defending his belt when he was invited to attend the promotion’s champion summit back in July 2025. It was at that time BKFC signed Dodson to a new exclusive deal after he had previously split time between bare-knuckle fights and competing in RIZIN in Japan.
But since putting pen to paper, Dodson claims he’s only heard excuses why he hasn’t been booked and he’s still no closer to a return to action with his most recent BKFC fight happening all the way back in March 2024.
“Bare-knuckle is the one who signed me [to] a new contract saying that I can’t fight for any other promotions,” Dodson told MMA Fighting. “So I’ve been waiting for them to go ahead and give me my next victim. They brought me out to the champion’s summit when they were out in Florida and all of the champions were out there. Conor McGregor made a spectacle. Everybody was sitting there talking about the big man, giant tournament that they’re going to have for the world’s baddest man and the world’s baddest bitch tournament coming out soon shortly afterwards.
“They forced me to watch the inaugural flyweight interim world champion fight happen, which pissed me off, because I asked to fight both those guys and they told me neither one of them were ready for me. I got a winner and then OK cool, I’m going to fight one of these dudes, I thought I was going to fight the winner. Andrew [Strode] vacated the title and then Gee [Perez] has been fighting left and right so I’m like yo, when the hell am I going to get the chance to fight?”
It was after his most recent appearance in RIZIN that Dodson says BKFC asked him to either sign an exclusive deal or relinquish his belt. He was more than happy to commit to bare-knuckle fighting, but he never imagined the result would be even more time off.
“Right after my last RIZIN fight, I went out there and we signed a new deal and they sat there and said I can’t have any other outside fights,” Dodson said. “I can’t go back to mixed martial arts. I can’t do anything else because if I do, I vacate the title. That’s why they sat there and made an interim champion, I guess. I was like, no, I was waiting for you guys to give me a call, waiting for me to go ahead and step up.
“I don’t care where I fight. I just want to get back into the squared circle and knock somebody out so we can get moving forward in this next process after this.”
May marks a full year since Dodson last fought and at 41 years old, even feeling great and staying ready to compete, he knows time isn’t on his side when it comes to his combat sports career. Dodson has been anxious to stay busy. He can’t fight forever and he doesn’t want his remaining years to be wasted.
Perhaps the toughest pill to swallow about the whole situation is that Dodson has been approached by numerous promoters asking about his availability, but due to his deal with BKFC, he can’t book anything.
“I could be active right now because of the fact that everybody’s asked me to come back,” Dodson said. “Even RIZIN’s asked me to go out there, to go do a mixed martial arts fight out there. I’ve had some boxing promotions ask me if I want to go ahead and box. I’ve have other organizations and other things come up to me and say, ‘Hey, would you be interested in doing it?’ and I don’t know how it conflicts with my bare-knuckle contract.
“It kind of sucks because in any realm of combat sports, which it says in the contract, that I can’t do any other combat sports, there’s a lot of things that it says. That’s guidelines for everything. I can’t do jiu-jitsu tournaments. I can’t do pro wrestling. I can’t do a lot of things because of the fact that I’m locked in and waiting for them to go ahead and give me the green light to go beat up somebody.”
To be clear, Dodson has enjoyed every facet of his transition into bare-knuckle fighting and working with BKFC up until now. He still wants to be a fighting champion, but he can’t do that if BKFC isn’t giving him fights.
“Apparently they can do whatever they want with me and pretty much [hold me] as a hostage,” Dodson said. “Because I need to go ahead and figure this out. This is frustrating. Because I don’t want to be that guy. I don’t want to sit there and talk a bunch of crap about an organization because we already know how that goes. The more shit talking you do about an organization, they’re just going to postpone you having a fight ever.
“They’re not doing me a favor because I’m literally holding their belt. I’m promoting them. I’m showcasing how the flyweights should be interacting with the rest of the world by going out and doing all these public events and talking to people and showcasing I’m their champion. Why can’t they take care of their champion?”
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