Stevie Ray isn’t hiding from the knockout. A day after Danny Christie dropped him face-first in the second round of his bare-knuckle debut at BKFC 96 in Scotland, the 36-year-old went to Instagram, gave Christie his due, and took the blame for the punch that ended it.
“I felt a bit rusty in there, Danny was faster and was always winning but I know I hurt him bad to the body,” Ray wrote. “Rushed in with my hands low and got caught. You don’t play bareknuckle. I’ll be back better.”
That’s about as honest a post-loss read as you’ll get from a fighter. The finish on November 7 was brutal: Ray went down flat on his face and the referee waved it off.
McGregor’s matchmaking mea culpa
The more surprising voice came from the post-fight press conference, where Conor McGregor openly second-guessed the pairing. He credited Ray’s body shot, said Christie’s experience was the difference, and praised the Scot for having the courage to take the fight in the first place.
“An experienced bare-knuckler [Christie], which was some ask,” McGregor said. “The matchmaking on that one, we could have jumped the gun because Stevie, we could have fed him in a little bit more.”
Ray thanked McGregor for the kind words. He also framed the gap himself, noting in his post that he was two years removed from his last fight and had drawn one of BKFC’s most experienced fighters for his first night without gloves. The pre-fight trash talk, he said, was all banter. The two were laughing and shaking hands behind the scenes, and Ray couldn’t resist a jab at Christie being a grandad while calling him one tough customer.
How lopsided was it on paper?
Pretty lopsided. Christie came in at 6-3 in BKFC and has held two titles in the promotion. He’d seen every situation that cage could throw at him. Bloody Elbow pointed out that McGregor’s emphasis on experience was about Christie’s ability to absorb Ray’s body work and keep coming, the kind of adversity that might have folded a less seasoned opponent.
Ray was coming off more than two years away from competition. He left the UFC six years ago in a split he has said felt like being forced out, then fought seven times for the PFL before the long layoff. Saturday was meant to open a new run in front of a home crowd, and it still might. Ray told Bloody Elbow before the fight that he signed a three-fight deal with BKFC and had no plans to make this a one-off. In his post, he said he’s been in this spot before and will never quit.
The promotion would be smart to listen to its own guy. When McGregor says on a live mic that they rushed someone, the next booking practically writes itself: give Ray a bare-knuckle opponent who’s still learning the sport too, let him shake off the rust, and find out whether that body shot that hurt a two-time champ can carry him somewhere. Throwing a returning 36-year-old in with a 6-3 former titleholder for his debut was a bad call from the start. Ray took his loss like a pro. BKFC now owes him a fairer second fight.
