Harrisburg, PA – On the heels of a successful 2024, the Department of State’s State Athletic Commission (SAC), which oversees combat sports in Pennsylvania, will begin 2025 with a historical first.
The Commonwealth will host its first sanctioned bare-knuckle fighting event on Jan. 25 at Wells Fargo Center in Philadelphia. The SAC will play a pivotal role, overseeing all regulatory aspects to ensure safety, fairness, and compliance with state laws and regulations.
“This isn’t just any event,” Secretary of the Commonwealth Al Schmidt said of the multiple-fight card known as KnuckleMania V. “It’s the biggest event the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) hosts annually and should be a boon to the regional economy. Our SAC team continues to impress with its oversight of major events.”
Philadelphia’s Eddie Alvarez is slated to take on Jeremy Stephens in KnuckleMania V’s main event. A championship bout between Mick Terrill and Ben Rothwell will take place, as will a featured fight matching TikTok star Bryce Hall, who won his BKFC debut last year, and Kimbo Slice Jr., the son of late mixed martial arts (MMA) icon Kimbo Slice who is making his BKFC debut.
In the highly anticipated women’s flyweight division matchup, Taylor Starling will battle Bec Rawlings.
Additional fights could be announced closer to the date.
“The promoter [of BKFC], Dave Feldman, has said this is expected to be the biggest event in the company’s history,” said SAC Executive Director Ed Kunkle. “Like we had with Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis during two hugely popular boxing events in 2024, having a hometown hero like Eddie Alvarez on the card adds a level of anticipation and excitement to what’s already shaping up to be an incredible night of professional fighting. Bare-knuckle fighting has seen a resurgence in popularity and is currently sanctioned in more than 30 states.”
A title-worthy performance in 2024
SAC is responsible for licensing and medically clearing participating fighters; licensing corner persons; and assigning licensed referees, inspectors, judges, timekeepers, and doctors for combat sports like MMA, professional boxing, kickboxing/Muay-Tai, and professional wrestling.
Under the leadership of Kunkle, who began as executive director in late 2023, SAC enjoyed a prolific 2024. During the year, the commission – which is financially self-sufficient and uses no state taxpayer money – regulated or sanctioned all of the following:
- 43 professional boxing events,
- 26 mixed martial arts (MMA) events,
- 68 amateur boxing events,
- 13 kickboxing/Muay-Tai events, and
- 382 wrestling matches.
“And there are many additional, exciting events being planned for 2025,” Kunkle said.
The commission’s biggest hits of 2024 included WWE’s multiple-night WrestleMania event at Lincoln Financial Field in early April, which boasted a live attendance of 145,298 and generated millions of dollars for the Philadelphia-area economy.
There were two Ennis-featured boxing events, with the Philadelphia native winning title-defending fights in mid-July in front of 14,365 spectators – the highest-attended professional boxing match in Pennsylvania in nearly 50 years – and another fight on Nov. 9 in front of 8,794 fans, both at Wells Fargo Center.
The Team Combat League, the nation’s first and only boxing league with a team-based ownership model, also landed in Pennsylvania in 2024 via the Philadelphia Smoke. During a May 2 bout at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, the Smoke’s Jaclyne McTamney and Rosalinda Rodriguez of the Miami Stealth made PA history by delivering the first three-minute round in women’s boxing.
Visit the State Athletic Commission website for more information.