Former Ultimate Fighter winner and UFC veteran Roy Nelson returns to action this Friday night.
“Big Country” will headline Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event from the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida vs. Dillon Cleckler. The 12-fight event will take place under the unified rules of MMA but minus gloves.
All the action will air on Jorge Masvidal’s YouTube and Facebook pages, along with those pages for Gamebred Promotions.
“I came up fighting in the streets and backyards of Miami with nothing but my fists, so this is really about me getting back to my roots as a fighter,” said Jorge Masvidal, retired MMA superstar and Founder of Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA. “Putting two competitors in there with no gloves and nothing standing between one another – that to me is pure fighting,” “That’s what I’m aiming to do with Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA – strip the sport down to its primal essence. And we’ve got some great fighters on this card. So, tune in on Cinco de Mayo to get a taste of what’s to come as we’re planning to bring a lot more bareknuckle action in the future.”
Nelson, Cleckler with over 30 combined wins
The Las Vegas native Nelson (23-19 career MMA record) competed as an MMA heavyweight from 2004 to 2020, for elite organizations such as the UFC, EliteXC, the IFL, BodogFIGHT, and most recently for Bellator MMA. Nelson won The Ultimate Fighter: Heavyweights and went on to gain tremendous popularity and success as a top 10 UFC heavyweight.
Pensacola, Florida’s Cleckler (11-1 career MMA record) also competes in bareknuckle boxing and boxing and has become known as a vicious and powerful striker. Cleckler will be returning to MMA for the first time since 2019, but has gone on to have four bareknuckle boxing fights (3-1) with his only loss coming to Arnold Adams in a championship fight last May.
The rest of the card will feature veterans of UFC, Bellator, PFL and other promotions.
“I can’t wait for this historic event, the first ever sanctioned Bareknuckle MMA in the state of Florida,” said Dean Toole, President of Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA. “This is going to be an absolutely incredibly stacked card with elite fighters from all over the world. It’s Cinco De Mayo, it’s F1 weekend, we’re in the FLA Live Arena, what more can you ask for?”
