Former WBO junior lightweight boxing champion Jamel Herring, a native of Rockville Center, N.Y., in Hempstead, Long Island, made his Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) debut in January at Mohegan Sun. Now, the former Marine will challenge for the BKFC Bantamweight championship when he faces Nate Maness at BKFC 89 Palm Desert (California) tomorrow night.
“May is never just another month for me,” Herring said via X (formerly known as Twitter). “My daughter Ariyanah’s birthday is May 25th. I lost her to SIDS when she was only two months old. In 2019, on that same day, I became a world champion. Now, May 22nd, just days before her birthday and during Memorial Day weekend, I get the chance to fight for another world title.”
The 40-year-old Herring, who last competed as a boxer in April 2024, told the AmNews how he became a BKFC competitor.
“I just felt like I missed training for the most part, and I was watching everything going along, especially behind the scenes,” Herring said about boxing inside the ring and on the business side.
He also closely followed the BKFC career of his good friend, former boxer and current Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship contender Austin Trout.
“(I watched) what he was doing and how he was making things look in terms of bringing that boxing aspect to a different combat sport,”said Herring, “and I actually reached out to him a few times and we had a lot of great conversations … he was just letting me know the little twerks and differences between boxing and bare knuckle fighting.”
Herring explained the differences in BKFC and boxing.
“I guess when the adrenaline is running (in BKFC fights), you don’t really worry about the impact of the punch so much, but when you look at boxing, you probably expect to get hit more because there’s more cushion behind your opponent’s fist.
“You have to just pick it up a lot faster. Obviously, there are only five rounds. It’s a sprint because there are only two minutes, so during camp, we just worked on a lot of cardio and starting out faster in the first round. Basically, going back to my amateur days, especially the Olympics. It was only four two-minute rounds.”
Herring, who was a member of the 2012 U.S Olympic boxing squad that battled in London, shared the significance of his fight taking place during Memorial Day Weekend.
“(It is) a weekend to remember fallen veterans throughout the years, so obviously this is a big weekend for all veterans,” said Herring, who served a tour of duty in Iraq in 2005. “I have to conduct and carry myself as a Marine because I represent them and not just them, the entire United States Armed Forces.”
