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This would not, Cody East had promised on Thursday, be a CrossFit competition.
No it was not, unless CrossFit competitions involve lots and lots (and lots) of blood being shed in a quest for victory and for the entertainment of a wildly cheering crowd.
Albuquerque’s East, the stronger and fitter man no matter his softer physique, defeated Hawaii’s Dylan Rush by third-round TKO on Saturday in a blood-soaked heavyweight BYB Extreme bare-knuckle brawl at Revel ABQ.
Rush, battered, bloodied and clearly exhausted in Albuquerque’s mile-high elevation, was unable to come out for the fourth round.
East, now 2-0 in BYB competition, said he wanted more.
“I have one thing on my mind,” East said in BYB’s Trigon ring afterward. “… The (BYB) heavyweight champion, the Cuban (Gustavo Trujillo), is a bad dude. But so am I.”
To that, Rush — had he not been taken to a hospital immediately after the fight — could have attested.
Rush, though with no professional fighting experience outside of Toughman contests and one BYB fight, showed surprising skills as a boxer — using a sharp left jab to open a cut near East’s right eye and drenching the right side of the New Mexican’s face with blood.
It was East, though, who landed the more damaging shots over the course of three rounds. Rush, tiring badly and bloodied by a cut at his hairline, was knocked down once in the first round and three times in the third, barely making it to his feet and to his corner at round’s end.
Seconds later, the fight was waved off.
Though East seemed fine in the ring afterward, he later was placed on a stretcher in his dressing room and was to join Rush at a hospital.
In an anticlimactic main event, St. Louis’ Javon Wright disposed of Argentina’s Walter Saravia by knockout in 2 minutes, 15 seconds of the first round, capturing the BYB welterweight title.
Wright caught Saravia with an uppercut, doing severe damage to the Argentine’s nose. Saravia went down and did not beat the count of 10.
In other fights:
Giovanni Rosales, San Jose, Calif., 166.4 pounds, defeated Nickolas Whitmore, 158.8, Albuquerque, TKO-1 (1 minute, 48 seconds).
In the evening’s opening fight, Jackson-Wink’s Whitmore was holding his own until Rosales landed several big shots, trapped him in one of the Trigon’s tight corners and blasted away.
Whitmore, defenseless, could only cover up until referee Robert Velez stepped in.
Rosales trained for the fight, he said, with former UFC heavyweight Cain Velasquez, who was in attendance at Revel on Saturday.
“(Velasquez) trained me for free,” Rosales said.
Chaise Nelson, Mansfield, Ohio, 131 pounds, defeated Nate Williams, 130.2, Des Moines, Iowa, by unanimous decision (49-44, 49-44, 48-45). It was the only fight of the evening that went to the judges.
Nelson, taller and the more skilled boxer, built a big early lead against Williams with knockdowns in each of the first two rounds. Williams gradually exerted more pressure as the five rounds unfolded, but in the eyes of the judges didn’t do enough to catch up.
Yunieski Gonzalez, Miami, 185.6, defeated Martez McGregor, 185, Chicago, KO-1 (2:52).
In the kind of all-out brawl that bare-knuckle fans pay to see, Gonzalez simply had too much power for McGregor. After Gonzalez’s punches dropped the game McGregor, the Chicago fighter struggled to his feet — too late to beat referee Velez’s count.
Henry Barahona, 160, Albuquerque, defeated Matthew Maestas, 160.6, Denver, KO-1 (:53).
Barahona, a Jackson-Wink fighter who had BKFC flyweight champion John Dodson in his corner, caught Maestas with a flurry of blows near the Trigon’s pointy end. Maestas collapsed face first and made no effort to beat the count.
“It was amazing,” said Barahona, admitting to some pre-fight nerves in his BYB and bare-knuckle debut. “… That sure was fun. I came out here, showed that dawg and took down a tough guy.”
Jerome Hatch, 194.4, Lehi, Utah, defeated Daniel Lerwell, Townhill Swansea, Wales, 194.4, KO-1 (:13).
Hatch apparently just missed the distinction of scoring the quickest knockout in BYB annals — freezing Lerwell with a powerful right hand, then landing another shot as the Welshman toppled to the canvas.
“Story of my life, baby, story of my life,” Hatch said of just missing the record.
Of his future with BYB, he said, “You line ‘em up, I’ll knock ‘em down.”
Carlos Guerra, Mexico City, 143, defeated Cole Griego, Albuquerque, 145.4, TKO-3 (2:38).
This fight projected as a mismatch, based on the experience gap between the two fighters. Guerra entered the Trigon with seven previous BYB fights, having won five of them; Griego, 0-4 as a pro MMA fighter, was making his bare-knuckle debut.
It was indeed a mismatch. Griego was down six times by the Journal’s count — or seven, according to an announcer at ringside while interviewing Albuquerque combat-sports legend Holly Holm — before the bout mercifully was stopped.
Yet, it was Griego’s pure guts — “onions,” as CBS basketball analyst Bill Raftery surely would have said — that made the one-sided fight worth watching.
Down once in the first round and three times in the second, Griego came out swinging in the third — only to be dropped twice more before referee Sid Ware stepped in.
Attendance numbers were unavailable, but Revel’s auditorium was packed close to capacity.
BYB co-founder Dada 5000 (real name Dhafir Harris) pronounced the evening a rousing success.
“I loved it,” he said. “The energy was great, the fans were great, the fights were great. What a way to kick off (2025) for BYB Extreme.”
Will BYB Extreme be back?
“A hundred percent. If they would have us, we’d love to.”
Writer, R. W. /. J. S. (n.d.). Bare knuckle: East scores bloody victory over Rush. Albuquerque Journal. https://www.abqjournal.com/sports/article_602846a4-d0ac-11ef-bf18-9f8794b2ea2d.html#1
