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This weekend at UFC 291, Salt Lake City will bear witness to the second competition for the Baddest Motherf—er title. It’s an accolade that has no bearing on real title lineage or the pecking order of the rankings. Winning the BMF belt won’t get you shot at the belt in your respective weight division. It is purely for bragging rights, or more practically, it is the secret weapon the UFC brass has recently discovered they can break out when they need to fill a title spot to meet their contractual ESPN quota.
BMF background
The BMF title was first introduced at UFC 244 in 2019. Jorge Masvidal and Nate Diaz were the first fighters to compete for that unique strap and Masvidal would end up the victor. The belt was estimated to cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $50,000 to make and was presented to the winner by Dwayne “Rock” Johnson.
UFC 291 will be the second time the title will be up for grabs, despite Dana White saying it was a one-time deal. Something tells me this is going to become a regular occurrence, especially considering the way El Jefe defended the UFC’s decision to dust off the old title.
“We’re in there and, as we’re putting that card together for Utah, we thought that Poirier and Gaethje is such an awesome fight. Masvidal retired, so we put the BMF up. You have no idea how many of these fighters want to fight for the BMF title. They all want to fight for that belt. It’s fun, it’s different. So, we’ll do it again.”
White isn’t off the mark when he noted lots of fighters wanted to compete for the BMF title. It’s a title, meaning it could, in theory, net PPV points and most assuredly a nice, fat purse. And of course, there are always those aforementioned bragging rights. And that’s where Kevin Holland comes into play.
Kevin Holland, self-proclaimed BMF
In a recent interview with Cageside Press, Holland revealed that he’d commissioned a BMF ring for himself.
“Bro, I might get in trouble, but I bought a whole BMF ring. I just made my own ring. Like, f—ck it, you know what I mean? It’s like, obviously, I’m not going to get the belt. They dropped it down to 55. I ain’t cutting that weight. The people speak loud. You know, the people love me. When they drop it…I don’t ask to be tagged, the people tag me and they think I’m a BMF.
Jorge had it and he talked all that sh—t about how we were going to scrap. ‘I got one more and it’s for you.’ I got a whole DM full of this bullsh—t. But ultimately, you retired and then you blessed your homeboy with the belt. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I would have did it for my homeboy too. F—ck it, it is what it is. So, I got a ring and it’s nice as f—ck. I’ll probably wear it tomorrow, just so I can get in trouble.”
Kevin Holland vs. Michael Chiesa will be the main card opener Saturday night which begins at 10pm ET. For full streaming details and compatible devices, go here.
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