Andrew Strode Stops Gee Perez, Seizes BKFC Bantamweight No. 1
Andrew Strode seized the No. 1 spot at bantamweight with a first-round demolition of Gee Perez at BKFC 93. The unbeaten Colorado fighter ended the rematch at 1:59 of round one Friday at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, Florida, and left Perez’s face as the picture of the night.
The stoppage was a TKO. The image was a hematoma. Strode (5-0) walked Perez (7-3) into the kind of swelling that makes a ringside doctor’s job simple. Blood came off the white shorts. The black trunks kept throwing. Bare knuckle does not hide a mismatch for long.
This was the run-it-back they were owed. At BKFC 78 in July 2025, Strode tore Perez’s ear open in a vacant interim flyweight title fight. The doctor waved it off. The bout was first called a no-contest, then the Florida commission flipped it to a TKO and handed Strode the interim belt the next day. Perez wanted another look. He got less than two minutes.
Strode had called the rematch personal and predicted a first-round finish. He hit the time. The Cutman, a Cuban-born veteran out of Plant City who used to work corners before he started taking the punches himself, could not turn the first meeting’s gore into a different ending. Fear is what Perez said drives him. Friday it was not enough.
The ranking is the new fact. Jamel Herring holds the BKFC bantamweight championship. Strode was not fighting for that strap. He was fighting for the top of the line, and the promotion’s own framing after the demolition is that he sits No. 1 at 135. A No. 1 ranking is not a belt. It is the shortest road to one.
Strode, 29, fights out of the Denver area as “Legend.” He came into BKFC from pro boxing, made his debut against Cary Caprio in 2023, and has not lost in the knuckle. Tyler Randall went the distance with him. Chancey Wilson did not. Perez has now lost to him twice, once on a torn ear and once on a face that would not stay closed. Speed and a long reach at a small weight have been the scouting report. The hematoma is the film.
Perez came in 7-2 after a first-round knockout of Mike Hansen in June. He is 38 and built for wars. Strode is built for the stoppage. Five fights, no losses, and two nights against the same man that both ended with a doctor or a referee deciding Perez had seen enough.
BKFC 93’s main event was heavyweight. This bout was the one that will travel. Bare knuckle sells damage, and Strode sold it in one round. The first fight was controversial because of the ruling. The second fight was not controversial. It was a demolition.
What comes next is the champion. Herring has held the bantamweight title since May. Strode’s flyweight interim chapter and this bantamweight ranking put him in the conversation whether the office wants a 125-pound unification leftover or a 135-pound title shot. Nothing is signed. The No. 1 spot is.
Perez has to heal. Strode has to wait for a name. Friday he did what he said he would do in the round he named. Lucky numbers belong to other sports. In Hollywood he put a 1:59 on a rematch and took the top of the division the ugly way, which is the only way this sport counts.