Colosseum Showdown on the Table — Jorge Masvidal Pursues Historic Bare-Knuckle Event in Italy
Former BMF titleholder Jorge Masvidal is plotting something colossal.
On November 11, Masvidal’s Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA promotion will deliver its eighth event at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi featuring more than a dozen former UFC fighters, including the return of Italian standout Alessio Sakara.
Sakara last competed under the Bellator banner in 2019, scoring a 23-second knockout of Canaan Grigsby. Before that, ‘Legionarius’ fought 15 times inside the Octagon, squaring off with Chris Leben, Thales Leites, Chris Weidman, Brian Stann, Patrick Cote, and a host of other notable names from the late 2000s/early 2010s.
During a recent interview with MMA Mania, Masvidal expressed his excitement over hosting Sakara’s first fight in more than five years and revealed that he has some pretty big plans for the 33-fight veteran.
“Alessio f*ckin’ Sakara, I can’t believe it. Man, I’ve known Sakara—I’m going to say 17 years, and I’ve been telling him he’s going to fight for my show. I see him every day at American Top Team, and I’m like, you’re going to fight for my show,” Masvidal said. “One day he tells me, ‘I’m f*cking free to fight, [send me] contract,’ so I immediately put him in contact with my team….
“He’s another guy that I’m crazy excited about. I mean, he was so technical in his prime, so fast, so sharp. To see him in bare-knuckle, he might just start slicing faces up, butcher someone’s face. With Sakara, we got a good thing going with him. We might take the show to Italy; we’re working on it. It’ll be the first time to fight bare knuckle in Italy; no one’s ever done that before. Maybe even at the Colosseum, we’re talking to the people over there.
“It would be nuts because that’s where this type of entertainment started…It would be the craziest thing ever, and no promotor has ever done that, but your boy right here is about to do it. We’re working on it; we’re talking with the Italian government. Alessio Sakara is obviously a superstar over there, so we’ll see what happens.”
Last year, the MMA world was buzzing regarding rumors of a potential fight inside the iconic landmark between Elon Musk and Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg. Even UFC CEO Dana White revealed that he had spoken with Italian officials to discuss the possibility. Unfortunately, it never came to fruition.
According to americanliterature.com, the last fight in the historic venue was more than 1,600 years ago in 404 A.D. when gladiator fights were abolished by Honorius I.
the full card for Jorge Masvidal’s Gamebred bareknuckle MMA 8 event:
The full card for Gamebred Bareknuckle 8 features a host of familiar names to UFC fans, including Randy Costa who will compete against Brandon Davis for the welterweight bareknuckle MMA world title.
Also making his promotional debut is former UFC interim lightweight title challenger Kevin Lee who meets former WSOF, Bellator, and LFA competitor Saul Almeida.
Check out the full lineup of announced fights below:
- Randy Costa vs. Brandon Davis
- Kevin Lee vs. Saul Almeida
- Chase Sherman vs. Maurice Greene
- Jason Knight vs. Joshua Weems
- Curtis Millender vs. Jesse Ronson
- Alessio Sakara vs. Prince McLean
- Peter Barrett vs. Charles Rosa
- Alex Nicholson vs. Frank Tate
- Marcos Brigagao vs. Guto Inocente
- Mike Sanford vs. David Zelner
