Legal bare-knuckle fighting makes bloody debut in Wyoming

CHEYENNE, Wyo. - The first ever state-sanctioned bare-knuckle boxing match got a bloody ending Saturday night - and a big response from a rowdy crowd.

Arnold Adams, a 32-year-old MMA heavyweight, pounded ex-UFC fighter D.J. Linderman's face into a bloody mess in front of 2,000 loud and wild fans at a hockey rink that usually hosts birthday parties and skating lessons in Wyoming's capital.

Adams used an effective left jab to win a technical knockout. The ringside doctor stopped the match after the second round.

Tens of thousands more tuned in for the pay-per-view event, which featured 10 bouts, including four heavyweight fights in a tournament format.

Fans were lined up outside more than an hour before the first major bare-knuckle event in the U.S. since 1889. Forrest Peters, from Cheyenne, was among those in attendance. He came to cheer Estevan Payan - who served in the same Army unit as Peters - and to witness history.

''With the bare-knuckle fighting and everything, having them bring it back for the first time in over 100 years, you knew it's pretty exciting to see,'' Peters said, ''and especially having it here in Cheyenne, kinda out here where the West is still a little wild.''

Payan didn't disappoint, flooring Omar Velar at 1:57 of the opening round of a 145-pound Super Fight.

Winners in the heavyweight division will head to a semifinal event in September, with the final two survivors set to clash in the first legalized bare-knuckle heavyweight championship match later in the year. The subsequent matches will also be held at the Cheyenne Ice and Events Center since no other state has wanted the sport.

Other fighters included former heavyweight kickboxers Eric Prindle and Maurice Jackson, who won by TKO over Dale Sopi at 1:10 of the first round.

The card also featured former UFC heavyweight champion Ricco Rodriguez and legendary underground fighter Bobby Gunn along with former UFC contestants Johnny Bedford and Joe Riggs. An all-female match between Bec Rawlings and Alma Garcia was also scheduled.

''Wyoming was the first state to grant women the right to vote, so it's only fitting that Wyoming should host the first bare-knuckle fight between women,'' said Bryan Pedersen, chairman of the Wyoming Sport Combat Commission. ''You can read about history or you can make history, and we're going to make history tonight.''

Pedersen, an MMA fighter and former state lawmaker, successfully sponsored a bill in 2012 to create a state board of mixed martial arts - the first state to do so - to provide governance, promote safety and bring a sport he loves to his home state.

While MMA was thriving, bare-knuckle competition wasn't even considered when the law was passed. However, Wyoming jumped at the chance to host Bare Knuckle Fight Championships action after 28 other states passed.

Bare-knuckle competition is a skill sport with rules and regulations, Pedersen said. Many of the rules are similar to boxing, but besides the obvious lack of gloves, fighters are also free to use the back of the fist or hammer blows. They can also fight in a clinch and can hook an opponent's arm as long as he or she is actually fighting. Unlike MMA, competitors cannot kick or knee an opponent.

Promoters of this gloveless brand of pugilism claim the event is safer because contestants resist inflicting a hard blow that will injure their hands. Leather gloves tend to leave larger cuts and bruises.

The boxers are allowed wraps around their thumbs and wrists but don't wear any protection over their knuckles. Each bout in Cheyenne was scheduled for five 3-minute rounds in a circular ring instead of the traditional square. Ringside doctors are required at state-sanctioned bouts.

The International Boxing Hall of Fame said the last significant bare-knuckle bout was July 8, 1889, when John L. Sullivan went 75 rounds to beat Jake Kilrain. Even that event was illegal and had to be staged under the cover of secrecy as most states had outlawed the non-gloved version of boxing. Fighting was forced underground until 2011, when the Yavapai Nation sanctioned a match that Gunn won over Richard Stewart at the tribe's reservation in Arizona. The bout drew more than a million viewers, and the promoter of that event and the Wyoming one, David Feldman, realized there was a hungry market for bare-knuckle fights within the combat sports fanbase. It took him another seven years to find a state willing to sanction the next event.

Wyoming became the first state to sanction and regulate the activity after its commission reviewed research that indicated bare-knuckle boxing would be safer than other combat sports, especially when it comes to concussions, Pedersen said, adding that the commission spent about a year developing the new rules governing the sport. He also viewed Saturday's competition, and future bouts, as a way to generate economic diversity and promote the Cowboy State and its strong sense of Western independence.