In just his second contest under the Bare Knuckle FC banner, a former boxing world champion has claimed the BKFC welterweight championship.
Ex-WBA welterweight champion Austin Trout was the man who struck gold, earning a victory over two-division champion Luis Palomino in Hollywood, Florida.
Palomino is the reigning lightweight title-holder in BKFC but became a welterweight champion back in 2022 before returning to the 155lb division.
On Friday night, the Peruvian challenged for the vacant welterweight title, where he was tasked with Trout, who has boxed as recently as October and made his bareknuckle debut almost a year ago, where he stopped former UFC star Diego Sanchez in the fourth round.
Trout, who defeated Miguel Cotto in 2012, has been in with the likes of Canelo Alvarez, Erislandy Lara and both Jermall and Jermell Charlo during his eighteen-year long professional boxing career.
That experience showed as he handed Palomino a first bareknuckle defeat and was crowned champion of the 165lb division with a unanimous decision win (49-45 x3).
In a post-fight interview, reported by Boxing Scene, Austin ‘No Doubt’ Trout indicated that his focus may have now switched from professional boxing to the bareknuckle scene and admitted his pride at defeating Palomino, whom he described as a ‘BKFC legend’.
“This wouldn’t feel as good if it wasn’t against a prime champion like ‘Baboon [Palomino].’”
“I don’t think any win would be worthy of how I’m feeling now if it wasn’t against the king of BKFC. I’m going to be here for a long time, so get tired of me – I’m not going anywhere.”
Trout has dropped from 7th to 11th in the official WBA super-welterweight rankings, swapping positions with Abass Baraou (14-1) who is scheduled to face WBA #15 Sam Eggington next month in Telford.