Ryan Spivey has flown to Miami to fight Roberto Duran Jr
Ryan Spivey fights in Miami this weekend
Bransholme bare knuckle boxer Ryan Spivey has been given the chance of a lifetime as he prepares to take on the son of boxing royalty Roberto Duran in Miami this weekend.
Spivey will take on Roberto Duran Jr on Saturday evening’s BKB 58 card at the James L Knight Center and he’ll hope to make a name for himself by claiming a win over one of the most famous names in fight sport history.
Bare knuckle boxing is one of the fastest growing combat sports around the world at present and the BKB promotion is at the forefront of that with their triangular ring or ‘Trigon’ leading to knockouts galore and intense, ding-dong contests, with fighters having nowhere to run once they’ve entered the stage.
Lightweight Spivey, a former Kingswood School student, proudly boasts a 4-2 record in the sport with three of his wins coming by way of knockout, including his last fight at the AO Arena in Manchester back in May, which was stopped after just 40 seconds.
He certainly made an impression on that occasion and as he looks to climb the BKB ranks, he has taken up the opportunity to fight this weekend on just four weeks’ notice.
Spivey would likely have jumped at the chance to fight anyone on the Miami card, but the opportunity to take on a Duran was simply too good to turn down.
“I think Roberto is going to be in attendance,” Spivey told Hull Live. “He lives in Miami and that’s where his son is so I’m fighting in his hometown.
“His son was a tidy boxer but now he’s converted to bare knuckle. He’s had five professional fights, this will be my seventh professional bare knuckle fight. He’s a knock out artist, a come forward, pressure style fighter.
“Everyone who knows boxing knows Duran is boxing royalty. Mike Tyson says he was his inspiration, Anthony Joshua, everyone has Duran top three of all-time.
“His style is perfect for me. In pro gloved boxing he lost four times and he’s lost twice in bare knuckle. He has a high guard style that he’s carried from his professional boxing days and that style doesn’t really work in bare knuckle, it’s more footwork and you get out of the way, and you don’t use hands to block shots because your hands are so small without the glove protecting you.
“I think he’s going to walk onto a shot and get stopped.”
Indeed, stoppages are the name of the game in BKB which has an exclusive UK broadcast agreement with TalkSport, and the Trigon goes a long way towards encouraging short and explosive fights.
“When I made my debut for these guys in May, that was the first time I’d seen the Trigon,” he said. “It’s ridiculously small.
“They don’t want you to move really, they want the knock outs, those fast-paced, close fights. I think 90 per cent of all fights they’ve done have ended in a knock out, there’s nowhere to run and if you get into a corner, you’re cornered and the only way out is to punch yourself out.”
Of course, stepping into bare knuckle remains somewhat unconventional in the UK, despite its growing popularity, so how did Spivey find his way into the sport?
“I remember seeing a bare knuckle promotion called BTTB, it’s not around anymore because the guy who owned that is now the matchmaker for BKB. Because I had fights with him, he brought me with him,” he added.
“I messaged him saying ‘this bare knuckle looks fun, can you get me on?’. He tried me out against an experienced lad who had three fights already. That was in Leeds, I won that and I haven’t looked back since.
“I was straight to bare knuckle but the people I’m meeting, some of these have had 60+ amateur boxing fights, some were professional MMA fighters, that’s the beauty of bare knuckle, it doesn’t matter what your background is. It’s grit, the mental side and not accepting a loss”