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Beat the bully: Nguyen ready for title fight at KnuckleMania

Zane to make boxing debut at pay-per-view event Friday in Tampa

By Robert Collias 5 min read

Dat Nguyen will be fighting for a title in what may be the biggest fight of his career. Zach Zane is just glad to be fighting.

The pair of Baldwin High School graduates are on the KnuckleMania card Friday night in Tampa, Fla.

The 38-year-old Nguyen is 22-3 in his professional boxing career, including 2-0 in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship circuit. He will be in the co-main event on Friday's pay-per-view card, taking on 38-year-old Johnny Bedford (23-14-1) for the 135-pound BKFC title.

"Bedford, he's the champion for Bare Knuckle, he's been in the UFC, a veteran just like I am," Nguyen said from his training camp in Florida on Saturday. "A strong, very aggressive fighter. Very cocky. Basically I will be fighting him for the title. ... I have fought for a couple minor titles, but this is the Bare Knuckle title, world championship title."

Nguyen, who graduated from Baldwin in 2001, is excited to be in the oldest form of boxing that has made a comeback in the last few years under the BKFC mantle.

"Bare knuckle is the original form of boxing, the way it was done years ago, so I would say this is the biggest title there is, the first title that was ever sanctioned in boxing," Nguyen said. "So, it really has a lot of history. It's an honor to fight for this title."

Nguyen knows he will likely be in a brawl with Bedford.

"It's for a title, Bedford is the world champion, so I've got to say, 'Yes,' this is the biggest fight of my life," Nguyen said. "I could choose to do a lot of things. I could choose to box him, but like I said, he's a brawler, he likes to come forward. The way to beat a brawler and forward fighter, like I said, the only way to beat a bully is to stand up to the bully.

"He's the type that likes to bully a lot of fighters, but you know I'm a brawler, too. So, I can box, but the way to beat this guy is -- I can choose to do whatever I want, but I want to make the fight exciting, so I'm going to come forward and he's going to have a real fight on his hands."

Zane, 31, will be facing 38-year-old Martin Brown at 155 pounds. Zane is making his professional boxing debut after ringing up a 14-9 record in mixed martial arts. Brown is 14-5 in MMA and is fighting in BKFC for the second time after winning his debut.

Zane hasn't fought since Dec. 21, 2019, when he won a unanimous decision over Nainoa Dung in Bellator 236. Zane had two scheduled fights in 2020 against Nick Newell wiped out by COVID-19 concerns.

Zane is scheduled to leave for Florida today.

"To me, it's just new opportunities, new blessings, it's just something new for the world to see, a different me," Zane said. "I'm super excited, I feel like a little kid. I feel like it's almost my first fight or something. It's the longest I've gone without fighting, like over a year now."

Zane and Nguyen are following in the footsteps of Maui MMA veteran Kendall Grove, who is also a Baldwin graduate and former classmate of Nguyen. Grove has competed in UFC and Bellator, and was in BKFC 2 in 2018 shortly after the sport sprang back to life after decades in the shadows.

"I have nothing but respect for Kendall and what he's done in the sport," Zane said. "If it wasn't for Kendall I wouldn't be fighting probably. I got my first MMA fights because of him. Little does Kendall know that he ... really introduced me to mixed martial arts."

Zane said he is still in good standing with Bellator and wants to go back to MMA when he has the opportunity.

"I made nice with Bellator before I made the move to bare knuckle and made sure, I didn't want to cut ties with (Bellator)," he said. "I wanted to make sure we were on the same page and just have good vibes ... because I still want to fight MMA."

Zane said he often does boxing workouts to stay sharp and he is ready to enter the ring after the long layoff.

"Bare knuckle boxing, to me there's a timing and place for everything," Zane said. "You know, God wants me to do this right now, He wants me to stay sharp and when I go back to MMA I will be even that much more dangerous, that's how I look at it.

"I have a passionate love for boxing. I respect the art and I respect bare knuckle boxing. I'm just a martial artist."

He knows the game is completely different than what he does in the MMA cage.

"This is a whole different ballgame, you know, where you really see how hard you really are," Zane said.

* Robert Collias is at rcollias@mauinews.com.

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