Justin Ibarrola on Alberto Blas leaving BKFC as a champion to sign with BKB
Justin Ibarrola recently participated in a clash for the vacant BKFC bantamweight title and spoke about the man who caused that bout to be vacated in the first place. That fighter in question is Alberto Blas who left BKFC while still holding their 135 pound crown and signed with BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing where he has since gone on to secure a win inside then BKB Mighty Trigon.
When touching on the circumstances of how Alberto Blas left BKFC as the reigning champion and then went to BKB which caused the belt to be vacated, Ibarrola said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],
“Right and, I mean, Blas was kind of like calling me out online and we were exchanging words. But I don’t know, man. For me, it wasn’t even about fighting Blas. It was about, like I said, just taking my time waiting. Like it wasn’t me. I didn’t want to be the fighter chasing the belt.”
“I wanted to be the fighter where the belt was chasing me [laughs]. That’s exactly what happened, you know. It’s just perfect timing, man. You know, I consider myself lucky. I have literally no explanation for it. There was no like hidden story behind it or like strategy to get to the belt. There’s none of that. It was just right place, right time, right amount of patience, and it just fell into my lap, so.”
Justin Ibarrola claiming the throne that Alberto Blas left vacant
At BKFC 85 on December 5th, Justin Ibarrola claimed the strap that Alberto Blas relinquished when he departed from the company. Ibarrola ascended to the throne with a finish over former BKFC title challenger Ryan Reber in the co-main event outing a few days ago.
Justin Ibarrola improved to a perfect 10-0 record in the world of gloveless combat and finished his most experienced, high level adversary yet by way of a third round TKO. Now the BKFC bantamweight champion enters 2026 in prime position and bare knuckle boxing fans will assuredly be awaiting with curiosity a to who Justin Ibarrola first title defense will ultimately be against.
