{"id":36837,"date":"2026-02-17T00:17:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:17:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/news\/news\/Gamebred-Bareknuckle-MMA-to-return-with-36500K-tourneys-at-heavyweight-lightweight-200151"},"modified":"2026-02-17T00:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-02-17T00:17:32","slug":"gamebred-bareknuckle-mma-to-return-with-500k-tourneys-at-heavyweight-lightweight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/gamebred-bareknuckle-mma-to-return-with-500k-tourneys-at-heavyweight-lightweight\/","title":{"rendered":"Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA to return with &#036;500K tourneys at heavyweight, lightweight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <center><!--PICTURE R--><\/p>\n<div class=\"pointer\">\n<center><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/gamebred-bareknuckle-mma-to-return-with-500k-tourneys-at-heavyweight-lightweight.jpg\" width=\"640\" class=\"Picture\"\/><\/center>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/center><\/p>\n<p>\n<b>Jorge Masvidal is bringing his bareknuckle MMA promotion back to<br \/>\nlife. | Jason Burgos\/Sherdog.com<\/b><\/p>\n<p><!--\/PICTURE R--><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>After a hiatus that lasted well over a year, <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Jorge-Masvidal-7688\">Jorge<br \/>\nMasvidal<\/a> is reviving <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Gamebred-Fighting-Championship-16707\"><br \/>\nGamebred Bareknuckle MMA<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The former <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/organizations\/Ultimate-Fighting-Championship-2\"><br \/>\nUFC<\/a> welterweight title challenger revealed to <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/mmajunkie.usatoday.com\/story\/sports\/mma\/2026\/02\/16\/gamebred-bareknuckle-jorge-masvidal-tournaments-return\/88705373007\/\">MMAjunkie.com<\/a> that his organization will return<br \/>\non April 10 in the Dominican Republic, with another event planned<br \/>\nfor May 1 in Miami. The promotion\u2019s relaunch is highlighted by two<br \/>\n$500,000 tournaments, which will feature 16 fighters in brackets at<br \/>\nheavyweight and lightweight.<\/p>\n<div id=\"adViAi\">\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p> Masvidal announced four of the heavyweight pairings on Monday:<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Anthony-Smith-494186\">Anthony<br \/>\nSmith<\/a> vs. <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Chase-Sherman-159319\">Chase<br \/>\nSherman<\/a>; <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Guto-Inocente-17786\">Guto<br \/>\nInocente<\/a> vs. <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Mohammed-Usman-253535\">Mohammed<br \/>\nUsman<\/a>; Alexandr Romanov vs. <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Nikolay-Kovalenko-442669\">Nikolay<br \/>\nKovalenko<\/a>, and <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Todd-Duffee-22903\">Todd Duffee<\/a><br \/>\nvs. <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Bruno-Cappelozza-74598\">Bruno<br \/>\nCappelozza<\/a>. Smith is the biggest surprise of the field: The<br \/>\nformer UFC light heavyweight title challenger retired last<br \/>\nyear.<\/p>\n<p>The last Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA event was held on Nov. 15, 2024<br \/>\nat Mississippi Coast Coliseum in Biloxi, Mississippi. Over the<br \/>\ncourse of its first eight events, the promotion featured notable<br \/>\nfighters such as <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Junior-dos-Santos-17272\">Junior dos<br \/>\nSantos<\/a>, <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Alan-Belcher-10967\">Alan<br \/>\nBelcher<\/a>, <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Roy-Nelson-10249\">Roy Nelson<\/a>,<br \/>\n<a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Fabricio-Werdum-8390\">Fabricio<br \/>\nWerdum<\/a> and <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Jason-Knight-44957\">Jason<br \/>\nKnight<\/a>. Though gloves are not used, Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA<br \/>\nutilizes the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts for its bouts.<\/p>\n<h2>Keeping the Dream Alive<\/h2>\n<p>\u201cI never wanted to leave,&#8221; Masvidal said. &#8220;The whole time I was<br \/>\nworking, in the shadows in the back. It&#8217;s what business owners do.<br \/>\nI was just hustling, brother. Seeing what I could do, what networks<br \/>\nI could get on, what sponsors I could bring on board. I did<br \/>\neverything to keep the dream alive, just like fighting. I was able<br \/>\nto secure some funds, so here we go.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While Masvidal himself has teased a return to the UFC on more than<br \/>\none occasion (a recent rumor had him facing <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Conor-McGregor-29688\">Conor<br \/>\nMcGregor<\/a> at the White House), \u201cGamebred\u201d hasn\u2019t set foot in the<br \/>\nOctagon since dropping a unanimous decision against <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Gilbert-Burns-91727\">Gilbert<br \/>\nBurns<\/a> in April 2023. His most recent combat sports appearance<br \/>\nwas a boxing loss to <a rel=\"noopener nofollow noreferrer\" href=\"https:\/\/www.sherdog.com\/fighter\/Nate-Diaz-11451\">Nate Diaz<\/a> in<br \/>\nJuly 2024. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Jorge Masvidal is bringing his bareknuckle MMA promotion back to life. | Jason Burgos\/Sherdog.com After a hiatus that lasted well over a year, Jorge Masvidal is reviving Gamebred Bareknuckle MMA. The former UFC welterweight title challenger revealed to MMAjunkie.com that his organization will return on April 10 in the Dominican Republic, with another event planned [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":36838,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-martial-arts-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36837"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36837\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.martialartskleinanzeigen.com\/videos\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}