BKFC will finally launch its $25million tournament in 2027, according to the promotion’s founder and president Dave Feldman.Feldman has revealed his surging bare-knuckle league will roll out a six-month format early next year to crown the ‘World’s Baddest Man.’BKFC president Feldman plans to host tryouts and casting calls across eight different countries in order to qualify for the $25m tournamentGETTYBKFC co-owner Conor McGregor made the tournament official last July and said it would launch in March 2026, with the eventual winner banking $15m from a total $25m prize pot.But the highly anticipated tournament never materialised and combat sports fans believed the idea was dead in the water when talk of it went radio silent.However, speaking to talkSPORT.com ahead of BKFC 90 in Birmingham this weekend, Feldman confirmed the tournament is ‘100 per cent in the mix’ and what fans can expect.Knuckle up“Absolutely, that’s going forward,” Feldman responded when asked about the $25m tournament.“When you do really big things and really good things, sometimes you catch delays, but we’re certainly not cancelling that.“That’s 100 per cent in the mix and there’s going to be a major announcement in the next two weeks on it.“I’m very, very excited about that because I think it really sets us apart and lets people know that we’re serious.“Along the path of doing that and crowning the ‘World’s Baddest Man,’ we get to find some future stars for BKFC.“Who doesn’t want to know who the world’s baddest man is? Who doesn’t want to be the world’s baddest man? It’s a crown that every fighter in the world would want to have and I think that we’re gonna be able to do that. “It’s not going to launch until we do some preliminary stuff this year. It actually launches next year in 2027, but that’ll all come in the announcement in the next two weeks.”Bare-knuckle boxing has exploded in the last two years – Tierney, right, headlines BKFC 90 on Saturday nightBKFCView Tweet: https://x.com/hashtag/BKFC90?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5EtfwFeldman, who held the first sanctioned bare-knuckle show in 2018 before transforming BKFC into a business worth over $400m, said details of the tournament will be part of a ‘significant announcement’ on the promotion’s future distribution partnerships.“We’re gonna do on four different continents and eight different countries tryouts and casting calls,” the BKFC president added.“We’re gonna find the right guys, the guys that have the personality and the guys who we think can look the part and can also be the part.“There’s going to be some guys jacked up muscle-wise that look the part that aren’t the part, right? “And there’s going to be some guys, maybe some heavy guys that you think are out of shape and they are the part, but they don’t look the part.“So we’re gonna get all those guys, wean them down and put them in the tournament starting early in 2027.”BKFC $25m tournament details$25m pot: Total of pursesOpen-weight: 185-265lbsGlobal tryouts: Four continents, eight countriesLaunching early 2027: Six-month formatCrowning the ‘World’s Baddest Man’Feldman fully expects co-owner McGregor, who returns to fighting on July 11, to debut in BKFC once his UFC contract runs outGettyFeldman added the tournament will be spread across six months and, with purses combined, remain a $25m pot.“The winner’s gonna walk away with a very hefty sum and be a very, very happy man,” he concluded.UK market now a staple for BKFCFeldman touched down in the UK for BKFC’s latest show this weekend, with former UFC star Darren Till set to make his promotional debut against Aaron Chalmers on a stacked Birmingham card.Local lad Connor Tierney headlines the event in a rematch against fellow Brit Rico Franco.Till joined BKFC in April following a successful stint with KSI’s Misfits Boxing and told talkSPORT the offer to take off his gloves for the first time and fight was too good to turn down.Feldman has big plans for Till if he overcomes Chalmers on Saturday night as part of massive operational scaling in the UK.Feldman believes Till could be the face of BKFC in the futureGetty“He’s one hundred per cent gonna be the face of the UK, but I think he has the chance of being the global face of BKFC,” Feldman said of Till.“In 2027, [BKFC] will do at least one show a month if not two shows a month [in the UK]. “So we have a lot of plans, maybe a feeder league show into a bigger show.“I definitely want to do four very, very big shows next year in the UK… we’re gonna put a lot of money and a lot of promotion and everything else that we can behind the UK. “It could be our first market, but we want to make it at very least our second biggest market in the world.”