BYB Matchmaker Reveals Unfinished Business: Who's Ready for a Irwin vs. Oxendine Rematch? #BYB17

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BYB Matchmaker Mel Valenzuela was happy with a great night of fights at #BYB17 in Rock Hill. Jozette Cotton won the Police Gazette Diamond belt against Jamie Driver and Mark Irwin secured the inaugural BYB lightweight belt with a points decision over Joshua Oxendine.

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This is how Valenzuela summed up the night in our exclusive post fight interview: "The fights were all electric. I think the ambiance was great. Just really happy that no one came out of there with serious injury. We had some controversy, we had some knock outs. Overall, it was a great night, just as I expected."

This is what he had to say about the controversy in the main event: "The commission had its say and they did what they did. And the outcome was a victory for Mark and just another reason to run it back later on. It's not in my hands, it's not in BYB's hands. It's the commission and the fighters. And so the best man won tonight and I look forward to running it back for sure."

Valenzuela was really impressed with the co-main event between Jozette Cotton and Jamie Driver: "I think Jozette sat Jamie down five times. Jamie is game. Jozette is one of the top female fighters in the world, and she proved it again tonight. She's all business in there and she doesn't play. It was a great night for female bare knuckle boxing.

This is his secret for successful matchmaking: "I've been doing this for 15 years. I've done it for Golden Boy, matched some shows at Bellator. There's no science, it's sort of a a feeling. I look at fighters all the time, I get contacted daily by dozens of fighters from all over the planet."

Valenzuela also talks about the differences between matching a boxing fight and a bare knuckle fight: "If you're doing a gloved boxing match, you look at Boxrec, you look at the records, you look at the knockouts. That doesn't necessarily translate into bare knuckle. Because you have fighters that have been overlooked or mismanaged or they've been the B-sides in boxing. When you bring them over here, we don't have any B-sides."

He was really happy with the performance by both Harold McQueen and Kylle McMillan: "When I see a fighter like McMillan or McQueen, I look at their video and I know that they're ready for bare knuckle. The first thing I asked them was: 'Why do you want to do bare knuckle?' A kid like McMillan who made his pro debut here, you would think he'd go boxing or pro kickboxing, but he chose bare knuckle. Tonight he laid out Pablito Caballero and Pablito's no slouch. He's a tough customer. And Kylle McMillan started out tentative,Tylor Sigmon is no joke either. But you saw the outcome. I was impressed with those two guys."

Pro wrestler Bobby Lashley has recently been quoted wanting to try bare knuckle fighting. Valenzuela would definitely consider signing him: "We look at everyone, whether it's Bobby Lashley or The Rock, if their name is out there, we're going to look into it and as a team come to a consensus. So you just never know who's out there at any given week. But we're out there to compete and we're here to bring the best fighters to the bare knuckle world."

Now Mel is already looking forward to BYB Extreme in London on June 25: "I'm just looking at the card top to bottom. We got our killers, they got their killers. Bring it on! It's true competition. It's not antagonistic, it's a friendly competition. And we're looking forward to shining out there. I can't wait for Hatch vs. Martinjak. Hatch got knocked down twice and he came back and knocked out Martinjak. And he didn't hesitate to to run it back.So we're really excited and can't wait."

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