Nathan Rivera Calls for “Fireworks” vs. Tray Martin at BKFC Nashville Amid Push for Gold

Nathan Rivera is facing Tray Martin at BKFC Nashville on June 19th. As the ranked BKFC featherweight contender offered up his opening thoughts on this latest BKB episode, Rivera said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“I’m great. Thanks for having me, man. Yeah, dude. Nashville, it’s a new state for the company, a new state for the sport. So I’m super excited that I was selected to open up another state.”

When touching on if he takes a personal sense of pride in helping the promotion enter these newer markets, and what that means for how they perceive him within their roster, Rivera stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, I became a fan of Bare Knuckle when I watched it live for the first time. When I had already fought, and I went to the back room, changed out, and then I started watching the fights after. It was my first fight. I was early on the card and I realized dude, this is exciting. So part of the event it’s definitely; I don’t take it lightly at all. I do believe it is like what what you said, it is a certain level of responsibility to give the fans what they want. So I remember I opened up Virginia, Atlanta, Michigan. So now another one in Nashville. I’m super, super excited.”

With his steady rise in BKFC and where he is at coming off of his last fight, which saw him beat Tommy Strydom, which was him earning a win over a former 145-pound title challenger, Rivera quipped [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, man. I just, I like to fight. I just love to fight, and I want to fight the best guys on the roster. It’s cool because what I’m learning now is once you get that co-main or you get that main or whatever you get, it’s very rare that you go backwards. I want to continue to go up the same way. My last fight was a co-main, and it was against the former number one contender. He fought for the belt, and that was his only loss. So, I felt like that was fitting.”

“Now again to be co-main against Tray Martin who’s only 1 and 0 in the company. But has a wealth of knowledge and experience outside the squared circle. It’s definitely an honor to be co-main. I’ve never been the main event for BKFC, but I kind of like the idea of being co-main, going back and changing, and then giving everybody a hug that came out to support me.”

Nathan Rivera touches on the big players in BKFC at featherweight

While he perceives Tray Martin as a demonstrably dangerous opponent, many felt like Rivera would be facing a fellow-ranked BKFC featherweight here. When addressing that balance of outlined factors in this looming fight, Rivera said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, it didn’t go without trying. We tried. Of course, we would love to get the number one contender fight. From Edgard [Plazaola’s] point of view, I can understand why that wasn’t super, super [appealing]. He didn’t jump on that opportunity. He’s number one, he’s ahead of me. He wants to fight for the belt next. I could see why he wouldn’t want to go backwards to get a risky fight. Tray was definitely not the first option. We had a lot of guys that we had sent contracts out to, and we didn’t get anything.”

“I’m not saying all these guys were scared of me or something like that. I think it was four or five guys that just didn’t work out in a row. So it was getting a little disheartening, but I remember whenever my manager sent me the name, he was like, “Any interest in that?” I was thinking to myself, Tray Martin, I thought I saw that guy fight live at like 165. Then I looked it up, and he was fighting at 165, but he weighed in at like 153. So obviously very, very under the limit.”

“Definitely a natural 45er, but I didn’t really have my eyes on him before cuz I thought, okay, this guy’s nowhere near my weight class. But it’s one of those fights where every fight’s a risky fight. I think being the favorite, just calling it what it is, being the favorite is definitely a different set of pressures, especially in the bare-knuckle squared circle. It’s a different experience. He’s coming from 17 professional fights. I think he just won maybe two weeks ago. He had a second-round finish in boxing.”

“So he’s current, he’s young, he’s hungry. It’s like he has nothing to lose and I have everything to lose kind of mentality. So I’m super excited. I think the clash between those two mentalities and our two styles was like a; it’s definitely fireworks [that are] going to be happening for the fans.”

Expounding upon that balance of not overlooking this opponent even though he is a little more unheralded in the bare knuckle specific space, Rivera stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, and I do think that every fight is the most important fight. I think that that’s the case. I think that maybe a win over Tray Martin could bump me to the number one contender. I’m not positive. Plazaola is 6 and 0. I’m 5-0. I would say that Plazaola’s best win was against Gary Fox, he’s not a slouch by any means. He’s four and three. His last fight was Gary Fox. My last fight was Tommy Strydom. One of them was a former number one contender.”

“One of them fought for the US belt. One of them has the UK belt. So, it’s just kind of like, I think those caliber fighters are kind of equal. So, I think it’s a race to see who gets to 7-0 first to be the number one contender. But who knows? I don’t know who does the rankings. I don’t know who makes them. I do think that there’s a lot of guys that are pretty good that are not in the rankings.”

“I think that hopefully in the near future we can get the rankings mixed up with some of these real big dogs from other promotions. Like oh, there’s a guy that just came from BKB and just won. I think he’s like 7 or 8-0 now… Harry [Gigliotti], he’s another guy that is not in the rankings, but I think he should be in the rankings from his resume. So, there’s just so many fighters in the ’45 division, and I’m just happy to be in the mix.”