After winning a brutal contest at Wembley Arena, Carlisle’s Danny Christie faces his second major bare-knuckle fight this weekend – and is promising the same full-blooded approach.
The Currock fighter takes on Darren Godfrey at BKFC Newcastle on Saturday night.
And Christie says he won’t be holding back as he seeks another victory in the growing bare-knuckle scene.
He overpowered Terry Brazier on his BKFC debut in August and, speaking to the News & Star ahead of his next contest, Christie says: “That’s what I’m going to bring to the table every time. I can’t speak for my opponent; it’s always nice to have a nice dance partner and put on a spectacle for the fans.
“I’m not here to tip-tap around and go for a points decision. I’ll always be looking for the knockout and committing to punches, no matter what fire I take and what damage accumulates.
“As long as I can make it back to my own two feet, I’ll always continue fighting. I think people like that – that warrior-type fighter.
“Anyone who competes in bare-knuckle, they demand respect and rightly so. But I feel I’m one of these fighters with a larger heart than most. I’ve got a real will to win.
“I’m not saying everybody hasn’t but sometimes I feel I’ve been cast out of a twilight zone, a different dimension sometimes, when I’m watching combat sports and I see people quitting or going down from a lot less punches than I can take.
“It’s just where I am. I’m very pleased and proud that I’ve got this heart, that I’ve got and the will and skill I’ve got to compete in bare-knuckle at my age.
“I feel blessed and graced. I thank God every day for having this level of athletic ability at 37.”
Christie, from Currock, is an emerging name in a sport he describes as “primal” and “savage”, yet which is attracting a growing audience.
After his powerful debut against mixed martial arts veteran Brazier in London, his meeting with experienced Bristol puncher Godfrey is a feature fight at Newcastle’s Walker Activity Dome.
Christie’s own YouTube channel has raised his own profile, and he uses the platform both to document his experience of the bare-knuckle scene and his recovery from many years of drug addiction.
On his preparations for Saturday’s fight, he says: “I feel brilliant, stronger than ever. All the training is done now, and at this stage it’s the psychological preparation that’s really important, getting all the meditating right, and visualisation.
“I’ve done very similar preparation to the London fight, but I’ve done more this time. Even though I was very fit last time, I only had about three and a half weeks off, and when I did get back in the gym, it only took me two or three days to realise I hadn’t actually lost much of that fitness.
“I was fighting fit at the start of the camp, which was about nine weeks ago. I’ve had nine intense weeks of physical training. I’m peaking perfectly and feel very strong.”
Godfrey was drafted in to take on Christie after the original scheduled opponent, Gateshead’s Jamie Jones, pulled out through injury.
“It was important we got a replacement straight away,” says Christie. “I struggle to focus in the gym when I haven’t got an opponent. I’m not particularly bothered who it is, I will fight anybody on the circuit at 83kg.
“But my manager, being the brilliant manager he is, got it sorted quite sharpish, and in my next training session I was right back at it. I’ve watched a bit of my opponent but I leave all that to my coach.
“He’s got more bare-knuckle experience than me, but I’ve got absolutely no personal ill-feelings towards him. I don’t know him from a bar of soap. It’s not important to me who they are or what their credentials are.
“I concentrate on what I do well. I know I can fight, I’m fit and strong and I’ve got a lot left in the tank at 37. I’ll let them worry about what I’m doing instead of the other way round.”
Christie’s strong showing at Wembley Arena, when he defeated Brazier by technical knock-out in the third round, was praised by experienced fight experts.
“It was really nice, the feedback was really nice,” he says. “It’s always nice to hear people at the top level saying you’ve done well, that you’re a prospect. But it’s important for me to stay grounded.
“Ideally I want to be all wrapped in by next Christmas. If I can get three fights in next year, that could be it for me. I don’t want to be doing this for too long. My body’s failing already, and it’s a very physically demanding sport.
“I don’t mind my face getting rearranged – my vanity’s long gone. I’ve got the woman I want, I’ve got everything I want. But taking punches to the head is not ideal for your longevity.
“I’m not in it for the long term. I just want to take on the best available opponents. I’d fight the champion in the morning. I’ve just got that kind of attitude – I want to prove something to myself, and leave something my kids can look at and say, ‘That was my dad’.”
Christie will be backed by a vocal following from his home city in Newcastle this weekend, and says he will take plenty of Carlisle pride with him into battle.
“Wembley was brilliant but I struggled selling tickets,” he says. “I had about 20 people go down there. It’s very expensive for people to have a weekend in London, but this time round I’ve sold 170 tickets, and they’re all local lads. I’m expecting some good support.
“I love this place. I’ve lived and worked all over Europe, I’ve been all over the world on holidays, but Carlisle…there’s something very special about Carlisle. Carlisle’s where it’s at for me. Really good northern people.
“There’s obviously organised crime to a certain extent, but in comparison to other big cities, there’s not the level of it and it’s still very much one of those last untouched northern cities. It’s just a place I love. It will always be in my heart and always be home.
“It’s really nice to walk around my own estate, my own city centre, and get respect off people. People stop me in the street, I get asked for pictures… I never set out for it, but I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t flattering.”
Christie is aiming to make his mark on a brutal sport which he accepts is not to everyone’s taste, but which is undeniably moving more mainstream.
“Bare-knuckle now, for me, is very much where UFC [Ultimate Fighting Championship] was in the late 1990s,” he says.
“It was just starting to take off, just getting into mainstream telly. Five or six years ago nobody wanted anything to do with bare-knuckle. It was seen as that dark sort of sport that attracted a lot of lost people.
“Now you’ve got this transition going on – there’s a crossover. People who’ve never been interested in bare-knuckle before, football fans, whatever they are, they’re all crossing over, because it’s getting exposure.
“Primal is a good word for it – there’s something very gladiatorial about the sport. It’s stripped right back, with throwback-type people getting in there and competing.
“It really isn’t for the faint-hearted. A lot of very skilled, rough, tough, gloved boxers would have nothing to do with bare-knuckle, purely because it’s brutal, savage, primal.
“It’s a brilliant time for bare-knuckle right now. It’s getting the recognition and publicity which is rightly deserves. You’ve got an enormous fanbase now which has developed magnificently over the last two or three years. It’s going from strength to strength.
“It’s really attracting people from all walks of life, all sports…it’s a pleasure to be a part of it. By the time I’m finished, it’s going to be bigger still. In the future I’m gonna sit back and be able to watch this sport that I was once a part of, watch it grow.
“I’m gonna look back with some pride knowing I was part of it.”
Christie has made no secret of his past, and the role that drugs played in it, but says that, through the help of a programme, he is currently clean for the longest period of his adult life.
His YouTube channel has 22,400 subscribers. “When I started my channel it was to document my journey in recovery and self-discovery, being on the path I’m on,” he says. “Life’s never been better. The gift of recovery just keeps on coming. Sobriety for me is the way forward. I’ll never take another drink or drug as long as I live, I’m quite certain about that.
“The bare-knuckle stuff sort of came along after that and I document things about that too, but I never saw the level of support coming. I’m not one that needs affirmation, or pats on the back.
“But it is still very flattering, the level of support I get – some really nice comments, people saying I’ve inspired them to get in the gym, get clean.
“The things that I like watching and listening to are people with real-life experience, and I find some of the people I’m closest to now have been some of the worst people in the past.
“I guess that’s maybe why people identify with me, the transition I’ve made over the last nine-ten months. I’ve been far from an angel, but I’m very honest and open. I can talk about dark times and identify with people who’ve been in addiction and dark times.
“Sometimes I’ve got to pinch myself – life’s good, I’m on top of everything, I’ve got more happiness and inner peace than I’ve ever had, my finances are doing well, relationships are brilliant, my employment’s good, I’ve got good sponsors, a good coach, a good woman…it’s a real good time for me.
“It’s the perfect time to be doing this [bare-knuckle fighting]. I don’t think I had the mindset especially when I was in active addiction.
“Sometimes it begs the question – what could I have done if I had this mindset in my early twenties, how far could I have went in anything I chose?
“But that’s gone. That’s ‘shoulda, coulda, woulda’. I live in the moment. We are here and now and that’s what I concentrate on the most – what I can do in this next year or so?
“There’s talk of me getting a title shot if I get another two wins. But I’ve got to take it one fight at a time.
“I can’t help think things happen for a reason, to give me the strength I have now. I’ve got to be grateful that I’m here, alive, free, clean and with all these wonderful opportunities in front of me that continuously present themselves.”
* BKFC Newcastle on Saturday night: For more information, including how to watch, visit the BKFC website HERE
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