Dada 5000 wants one more fight. The Bellator 149 headliner told Bloody Elbow he’s targeting a comeback in 2027 as a special attraction for BKB, the bare-knuckle promotion he co-founded. That would be his first bout since his 2016 grudge match with Kimbo Slice, a fight that ended with Dada leaving the cage on a stretcher.
He made the announcement during BKB 60 fight week in Newcastle, England. Bloody Elbow asked whether he would have fought for the promotion if it had existed while he was still active, and he said a return was already on his mind.
“I’m here now, you know,” he said. “I’m healthy, I’m in shape, I work out every day, and being who I am, I just might give the fans a treat in 2027.”
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Then he put a number on it. “I’m like 90% sure that I’ll come back as a special attraction for BKB in 2027 but against who?” No opponent has been named. Dada said the matchup has to make sense, that the deciding factor is who qualifies, and that he’s juggling a lot of other projects right now.
The night everyone remembers
Dada and Kimbo had a long, ugly rivalry, and it boiled over into a headlining grudge match at Bellator 149 in 2016. People still talk about that fight for plenty of reasons. Most of them involve Dada’s gas tank. He was completely spent by the end and was carried out of the cage on a stretcher. Afterward he said he had suffered kidney failure and two heart attacks during the bout.
He has since blamed those problems on his preparation, or the lack of it, and he told Bloody Elbow he’s healthy now. He has not competed in any combat sport since that night.
The bare-knuckle side of his story came first. BKB launched in 2019 as BYB, short for Back Yard Brawl, a nod to the unsanctioned fights where Dada first made his name. Seven years later he’s floating a turn under his own banner.
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He has company. Earlier this week Chris Leben announced he’s coming out of MMA retirement, 13 years after his last appearance in the Octagon. Ten years away is long. Thirteen is longer.
Quick take
I’ll give Dada this much: he’s being honest that the opponent question is open, and he says he’s training every day. But the risk in this comeback has never really been about who stands across from him. The last time he fought, by his own account, his kidneys and his heart gave out partway through. He’s also a co-founder of the promotion that would book the fight, so he has a say in who qualifies. That means he also carries the responsibility to prove, with real medicals and a real camp, that 2027 won’t end the way Bellator 149 did. Show me the camp first. Then we can argue about names.
