Wyoming Police open criminal investigation against World Bare Knuckle Fight Federation

[Hardcore MMA]

Casper, WY police have opened a criminal investigation against WBKFF after many fighters and vendors have still not been paid from the November event. This is the promotion that Bas Rutten is involved with, and the event featured Johnny Hendricks vs a male porn actor. Very shady business practices going on here, but Bas Rutten said the fighters just need to wait and they will get paid.

“According to K2 Radio in Wyoming, Casper Police Department has opened a criminal investigation into World Bare Knuckle Fighting Federation (WBKFF) — not to be confused with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC) — over missed payments to local businesses and fighters.

The missed payments relate to the November 8th WBKFF card ‘Rise of the Titans’, which took place at the Casper Events Center. That event was headlined by Chris Leben defeating Phil Baroni. It also featured Johny Hendricks (who lost to Dakota Cochrane). Other recognizable figures from MMA who appeared on the card include Christina Marks, Julian Lane, and Isaac Vallie-Flagg.

Bellator veteran Brennan Ward was expected to face Hendricks on the card, but he pulled out at the last minute over a contract dispute.Former NFL player Shawne Merriman was also scheduled to be on the card, but he too pulled out over a contract dispute.

Ward later told Bloody Elbow’s Nick Baldwin that he didn’t think anyone on that card would be paid adding that the situation seemed “too good to be true.”

https://www.bloodyelbow.com/2019/1/...otion-notpaying-fighters-wbkff-mma-crime-news

 

[milliniar]

Unless Bas is paying the fighters himself I don't expect them to get paid.

 

[Sous-la-pluie]

whole event was shady from the jump. when i saw Shawn on fox... c'mon.
shame on bas, too. guess tank was right abt him.

 

[Limit Smasher]

Baroni doesn't deserve to get paid for his "performance". That was the one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen.

 

[Hardcore MMA]

Baroni doesn't deserve to get paid for his "performance". That was the one of the most embarrassing things I've ever seen.

That was pathetic. Hopefully no org ever signs him to fight ever again. However, he signed a contract with WBKFF and they owe him they money they said they’d pay him.

 

[maxi diablo]

Hendricks needs a whopper and fries dammit!

 

[europe1]

It gets way worse



No way they'll get paid

 

[Hardcore MMA]

It gets way worse



No way they'll get paid

Had no idea the owner was involved in other fraud cases too. Yeah, not a chance the fighters will get their pay. Dream on, Bas, and just be honest with the fighters. Let them know that you made a mistake by ever joining the organization. Bas should be defending the fighters instead of the owners who have screwed the fighters over. Bas is involved with Karate Combat too, so he could damage that products image with fighters if he doesn’t take a stand.

 

[PancraseForever]

whole event was shady from the jump. when i saw Shawn on fox... c'mon.
shame on bas, too. guess tank was right abt him.

What did Tank say?

 

[WarriorPoet1]

It sounds like based on what little I know Guy was going to jail for tax stuff and just tried to cash in on the Bare knuckle craze to cover what he owed

 

[CDF47]

whole event was shady from the jump. when i saw Shawn on fox... c'mon.
shame on bas, too. guess tank was right abt him.

I know there are some issues between Tank and Bas but what was said by Tank? Just curious. Interested in stories like these.

 

[cevo]

Lol, I'm not surprised. Shady organization without a realistic business plan.

 

[vgff]

waiting for the same to happen to Golden Boy MMA

 

[Pakman]

waiting for the same to happen to Golden Boy MMA

I mean in all reality, Oscar could pay the fighters all their money out of his own pocket for Golden boy MMA so the likelihood of it happening are slim to none.

 

[GiSP]

I feel bad for the people that got screwed but this whole thing sounded sketchy af from the start.

 

[Fatality]

Very disappointing to see this type of thing take place. With the amount of regulations in place these days, shady promotions like this shouldn't be able to even put on shows without certain guarantees in place. Very sad to see Bas involved with this crap too.

 

[Saku'sEar]

Shocker...

 

[Mike K.O]

If you wanna box with no gloves, don't go to WBKFF
BKB and BKFC pay their fighters

 

[wwkirk]

It's a shame Bas is involved with this outfit. I hope he isn't in on it.

 

[kingcillo24]

Had no idea the owner was involved in other fraud cases too. Yeah, not a chance the fighters will get their pay. Dream on, Bas, and just be honest with the fighters. Let them know that you made a mistake by ever joining the organization. Bas should be defending the fighters instead of the owners who have screwed the fighters over. Bas is involved with Karate Combat too, so he could damage that products image with fighters if he doesn’t take a stand.

Bas isn't coming out of this looking good. The damage is done since he was following the narrative the fighters would actually be paid.