Naked knuckle boxing has spent years on the periphery of fight sports activities, however underneath the management of Chief Govt Officer David Tetreault, BKB is making an actual case for the mainstream. As head of the world’s largest skilled naked knuckle boxing group, Tetreault oversees international technique, industrial progress, and worldwide enlargement for a corporation that has grow to be one of many fastest-rising properties within the sport.
Tetreault joined BKB in 2025 after constructing a repute throughout a long time in sports activities media. He spent greater than ten years as a senior advertising government at twentieth Century Fox, the place he ran campaigns for exhibits like The Simpsons, American Idol, 24, and The X-Information. From there he moved into fight sports activities correct, becoming a member of Golden Boy Promotions as Chief Enterprise Officer and eventual fairness companion alongside Bernard Hopkins and Eric Gomez.
Throughout roughly seven years at Golden Boy underneath Oscar De La Hoya, Tetreault helped negotiate community offers with Fb Watch, ESPN, and HBO, and he led the record-setting $600 million settlement that made DAZN the unique house of Canelo Alvarez. He describes that deal plainly: “John and I carved out on the time what I believe is the most important ever boxing promotional deal in historical past, making Canelo the best paid athlete on the planet.”
After Golden Boy, Tetreault hung out at Triller, the place he dealt with content material technique, international tv rights, and sponsorship integration. He additionally teaches graduate programs in Strategic Administration, Sports activities Enterprise, and Leisure Advertising and marketing as an adjunct professor on the College of San Francisco and California State College, Los Angeles.
David Tetreault Imaginative and prescient for BKB
In a Forbes interview, Tetreault laid out how he needs individuals to see BKB. “I don’t take a look at BKB as simply one other promotion like Matchroom or BKFC or Prime Rank or Golden Boy,” he mentioned. “I take a look at us as a sports activities group, whether or not it’s like Manchester United, the L.A. Dodgers, the Boston Celtics.”
That framing shapes how BKB indicators expertise, mixing seasoned boxers with former UFC and PFL names reminiscent of Victor Ortiz, Lee Selby, Aspen Ladd, Yuriorkis Gamboa, and the Vargas brothers. Tetreault has been vocal about wanting so as to add even larger names, together with public discussions with Tyson Fury and Oleksandr Usyk a few potential naked knuckle bout contained in the Trigon.
Storytelling is central to his plan. “There’s no means that we are able to flourish with out telling the athlete’s tales,” Tetreault mentioned, pointing to an in-house media division and a Bally’s-backed prospect collection presently in improvement. That Bally’s partnership launches January 9 in Biloxi and brings on line casino integration, punch-tracking expertise, and wider distribution into the combination.
BKB‘s digital progress has grow to be considered one of Tetreault’s favourite speaking factors. He pointed to the promotion’s pilot TikTok reside broadcast from the Lee Selby present in Cardiff on June 27: “We had the best watch time of any sports activities platform ever within the historical past of TikTok reside sports activities.” The channel has racked up greater than 53 million likes because it went reside in mid-April, and Tetreault locations the achievement alongside main digital sports activities offers like Fox’s FIFA rights, ESPN, and Crimson Bull.
BKB presently airs throughout talkSPORT within the UK and Eire, VICE TV within the US and Canada, and Telemundo for Spanish-language audiences, although the VICE settlement expires this 12 months and talks are underway for a broader international broadcast companion. Tetreault has mentioned the present VICE deal is up for renewal quickly, with conversations in movement for wider worldwide protection.
Tetreault has framed his ambitions in a three-year window: turning BKB right into a mainstream Saturday-night attraction that sells out arenas frequently. “Our objective is to have this factor mainstreamed in order that on a Saturday night time… individuals are tuning in. We’re promoting out arenas,” he mentioned, rapidly including the caveat that shapes each resolution he makes: “With out the precise athletes, the precise fighters on that stage, it doesn’t occur.”
With the Mexico debut approaching, a Bally’s-backed US push underway, and conversations persevering with with names like Fury, Usyk, and Jake Paul, Tetreault’s BKB tenure to this point reads like an try to show a distinct segment fight sport into a real international property.
