MMA veteran Dakota Cochrane will step in to take on UFC veteran Chris Leben in Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) action Saturday, June 22 live on pay-per-view from Florida State Fairgrounds Expo Hall in Tampa, Fla.
Leben was originally scheduled to face Brennan Ward, who was forced to withdraw from the event.
Opening the pay-per-view telecast will be Arizona’s Joe Riggs, who defeated Heriberto Tovar in BKFC action in February. Riggs will look for another triumph against Tampa’s Walber Barros in a 185-pound fight.
The televised portion of the can’t-miss night of fights will begin at 9:00 p.m. ET/6:00 p.m. PT and is headlined by a highly anticipated grudge match between former boxing world champion Paulie “The Magic Man” Malignaggi and UFC veteran Artem “The Russian Hammer” Lobov, plus Reggie Barnett squares off against Johnny Bedford in a showdown for the BKFC Lightweight Championship.
The event will be broadcast across the United States and Canada, exclusively on pay-per-view through MultiVision Media, Inc., on all major television distribution outlets for $39.99. It will also be available worldwide via stream to all in-home and out-of-home connected devices at FITE-TV and www.bareknuckle.tv.
Tickets for “BKFC 6: The Line Is Drawn” are available now exclusively at www.bareknuckle.tv. Florida will become the latest state to host a BKFC event after previous contests have been held in Wyoming and Mississippi, plus an event that took place in Cancun, Mexico.
Additional action prior to the pay-per-view will feature Tampa’s Abdiel “The Nightmare” Velazquez looking to bounce back from a loss to Bedford as he steps in for a lightweight fight against Pennsylvania’s Travis Thompson. UFC veteran Jim Alers of Orlando will face Pensacola’s Elvin Brito in a 165-pound attraction.
Rounding out the night of bare knuckle fights are several local fighters as Florida’s Jared Hayes meets fellow Floridian Chris Boffil in a 165-pound bout, and Florida’s David Mundell battles Oklahoma’s Drew Lipton in a 185-pound contest.
Originally from Portland, Oregon and now training out of Chula Vista, California, Leben first emerged onto the scene in the inaugural season of The Ultimate Fighter before going on to become a WEC Middleweight Champion. A veteran of over 20 UFC events, his career includes a five-fight win streak that led to a challenge of Anderson Silva. He will be opposed by the 33-year-old Cochrane, who fights out of Omaha, Nebraska. Cochrane has won six of his last seven MMA bouts, and is coming off of a bare knuckle second-round knockout victory over former UFC champion Johny Hendricks, who Cochrane also stepped in to face as a late replacement.