‘Hick Diaz’ Takes a Detour

BKFC5 | Saturday, April 6th | 9PM ET

Jason Knight and Artem Lobov toe-the-line LIVE from Biloxi, MS

Advertisement

Who ya got? @RusHammerMMA or @Jasonthekid23

https://t.co/1SmsWhc9du for details pic.twitter.com/svVMZA9gnZ

— Bare Knuckle FC (@bareknucklefc) March 19, 2019

Jason Knight put his mixed martial arts career on the back burner to focus on another pursuit: Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. The promotion revolves around former MMA brawlers looking to just stand and sling fists, and Knight is the latest fighter from the fraternity to temporarily change addresses. However, his decision to partake in the boxing-based sport was more about staying active while preparing for an eventual return to MMA.

After rattling off four straight wins in the Ultimate Fighting Championship between July 23, 2016 and May 13, 2017, Knight learned how to spend his money like a victorious fighter in the sport’s most prominent organization. However, he did not alter his lifestyle during the four-fight losing streak that followed, and the only way to maintain it once the win bonuses dried up was to fight more.

“It got to where I was taking fights when I shouldn’t have taken fights, just because I wanted to keep the money going,” Knight told Sherdog.com. “I wanted to try and keep that lifestyle.”

He preferred fighting once or twice a year, but to maintain the income levels to which he had become accustomed, he ended up fighting six times in a 23-month period. After four consecutive defeats, the UFC cut the man they call “Hick Diaz” from its roster. Although disappointed, Knight quickly turned the page on his career and let the industry know he was available to the highest bidder. Unfortunately for the Mississippi native, the bids since November were not what he had in mind.

“No [notable promotions have] reached out to my coaches or anything,” Knight said, “but I had two different Russian organizations reach out to me.”

One of the promotions -- he did not want to reveal which one -- offered him a rematch with Musa Khamanaev, a man he faced under the Titan Fighting Championship banner in September 2015. Knight won by second-round submission, but it was a difficult fight and he did not want to meet Khamanaev again unless the money was right. It was not.

“I barely escaped that fight with my life, much less a win,” Knight said, “and they were trying to pay me chump change to fight.”

Knight also received an offer from England’s Cage Warriors Fighting Championship organization, but the company wanted him to suit up a month after he was released by the UFC. He was interested, but the timing was not right from his perspective. One a four-fight skid, he wanted time to fix the flaws in his game.

“I was nowhere near ready,” Knight said. “I got kicked out of the UFC for a reason. I had some stuff I needed to work on.”

During his time away, Knight focused more on his gym: Jason Knight MMA in Lucedale, Mississippi. The facility offers him financial stability now and in the future. However, it serves an even greater purpose as an alternative outlet for youth in the community. Knight hopes MMA can better their lives, just as it did his.

“I opened the gym mainly just because I wanted to see my community do better,” he said. “All these kids around here, there’s nothing for them. There’s no outlet. Either they play baseball or football, or they go out and do drugs. [MMA] changed me from who I was into a way better person, and I wanted to do that for some of these kids.”

Eventually, Knight received what he deemed as a satisfactory offer to compete again. However, it did not come from the MMA world. Instead, he answered the call from BKFC, a promotion that has already featured a number of other UFC veterans, including Kendall Grove, Chris Lytle and Bec Rawlings.

“The reason I liked BKFC is because it’s not mixed martial arts,” Knight said. “It’s not MMA, it’s not going to go against my record and it’s keeping me active.”

Knight will headline BKFC 5 on April 6, when he meets “The Ultimate Fighter 22” finalist Artem Lobov at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. He admits he sees it as a signature moment in his combat sports career and understands a setback could seriously damage his value.

“I think this is by far the most crucial fight for me,” Knight said. “This is the one I need to take the most serious [and] the one I need to do the best in. If I go out there and get my ass kicked, this will be the last time anybody gives a s--- about what Jason Knight’s doing, but if I got out here and I put on a show and I make him look like a fool in front of everybody, then that might open up a lot of opportunities for me.”

Knight likes his chances against Lobov, pointing out what he believes to be serious differences in strength of resume.

“He’s nowhere near the caliber of opponent Ricardo Lamas was, nowhere near,” he said. “I just think that he’s an easy target and why not fight him? I think I’m going to shock everybody, because you have never seen me do footwork [and] keep my hands up. I’ve been working so much on my movement, on my hand movement, my footwork, keeping my hands up and overall boxing in general, and I think I am going to go ahead and wail on this guy.”

Although he agreed to a one-fight contract with BKFC, Knight remains open to future assignments, so long as he enjoys his experience with the organization. Still, he does not expect his separation from MMA to last long.

“I’m still gung-ho about [fighting in MMA], and I want to fight in another top organization sometime this year,” Knight said. “My thing was I wasn’t ready to fight a month after my release -- or two months. I’m definitely not done fighting MMA. If I need to fight a few bareknuckle fights along the way, that would be cool, too.”