As combat sports fans eagerly anticipate the latest showcase of gloveless striking, veteran heavyweight Cody East is stepping back into the squared circle with a singular focus: redemption, precision, and a clear path toward championship gold. Speaking exclusively ahead of his upcoming battle against former BKB heavyweight champion Ike Villanueva, East laid out his ambitions, reflected on the lessons learned from his past setbacks, and offered a candid assessment of the evolving landscape of combat sports.
The high-stakes bridgerweight contest, set to take place on October 23rd at BKB Bally’s Fight Night in Biloxi, marks East’s highly anticipated return to bare-knuckle boxing. It has been a little over a year since his unforgettable, action-packed throwdown with Jarome Hatch at BKB 42. In the interim, East has stayed active, competing in both traditional boxing and mixed martial arts, but the allure and intensity of the bare-knuckle discipline have drawn him back to the Trigon.
Reflecting on his return and the unfinished business lingering from his last outing under the BKB banner, East admitted that he is carrying valuable lessons from the Hatch encounter into his upcoming bout.
“Yeah, I feel great. I mean, I feel good to be here and get some redemption for mistakes I made in that fight,” East said. “So, I’m just here better than I have been and ready to show that tomorrow.”
When asked to unpack the specific errors that cost him in the Hatch fight, East offered a remarkably honest breakdown of his tactical approach and where his patience ultimately lapsed. He noted that the bout slipped away not because of a lack of success, but rather due to an overzealous pursuit of an early stoppage after he had already found significant success against his opponent.
“I got tired of beating him up truthfully,” East explained. “I mean, I fought a good fight, just overdid it a little bit, man. I should have slowed down and picked my shots a little bit better. But after I knocked him down two times, three times I was trying to press it. I thought the fight was going to be over when I dumped it and then he survived. Then after that, I was tired.”
That grueling experience forced the veteran fighter to reevaluate his pacing and methodology inside the Trigon. Rather than relying purely on raw aggression and the overwhelming pressure that has often characterized his career, East has spent his training camp focusing heavily on maturity, discipline, and ring generalship.
“So, just been working on being more disciplined and not everything has to happen instantly,” East continued. “Just taking my time, enjoying it, and it’ll come. I’ve just got to touch him a couple times and I’ll stop the fight. It doesn’t have to be right away.”
When the conversation shifted toward the philosophical takeaway from that defeat—the broader life lesson that things often fall into place when patience is applied rather than forced—East embraced the sentiment with a touch of humor and pragmatic realism.
“Yeah, 100%. We all want instant gratification and sometimes it’s not instant, right? We got time to work and I was there. I shouldn’t have slowed down and put my work in. That’s a fight I can win nine times out of 10. I made a mistake. He beat me and now I’m on to fighting someone that beat him last fight. So I mean, after I win this fight, maybe we could run it back. I mean, I would like to fight him again and give him a proper fight.”
Standing in the way of East’s immediate goals is Ike Villanueva, a dangerous opponent with an impressive and intimidating resume. Villanueva has previously held the BKB heavyweight championship and has challenged for the promotion’s bridgerweight crown, making him one of the most credentialed names in the weight class. Evaluating Villanueva’s skillset and career trajectory, East expressed respect for his adversary’s toughness while maintaining absolute confidence in his own standing at the pinnacle of the sport.
“I think Ike is tough. I think he’s a good fighter. He’s fought some really good fighters, right?” East said. “He’s fought bridgeweight champion, heavyweight champion, but they all stopped him. You know what I mean? He’s not on the same level as the pinnacle of the sport. I mean, he was at one point, but now he’s not. I feel like I am. So, I’m here to stop him as well.”
A definitive victory over a former champion of Villanueva’s caliber naturally raises questions about what comes next, particularly regarding a potential opportunity to fight for the bridgerweight title. While East noted that the promotion has not yet explicitly guaranteed that the winner of this bout will receive the next crack at the belt, he made it clear that a statement-making performance would leave little room for debate. Moreover, his willingness to step up against any top-tier challenger underscores his readiness to accept whatever tests the organization places before him.
“They haven’t said that, you know what I mean? But if I knock out Ike the way I should, that’s no reason [to look elsewhere],” East said. “All they’ve got to do is send me a name and I’ll fight him. I’ll fight Gustavo [Trujillo]. I wouldn’t mind fighting him either. Everybody tries to box him. No one tries to fight him. I would like to fight him. So I’m open to fight anybody from 200 to super heavyweight. So it don’t matter to me. You just got to send me the name, where to be at. I’ll make weight and I’ll show up and I’ll fight.”
Over the course of his career, East has earned a reputation for delivering iconic, high-octane battles that serve as perfect showcase pieces for fans newly discovering the world of gloveless combat. Discussing the instinct that repeatedly draws him into such thrilling wars, East pointed to the unique nature of bare-knuckle fighting compared to mixed martial arts, where grappling and positional control can sometimes slow the pace of action. At the same time, he emphasized a desire to showcase a more refined technical repertoire in his upcoming appearances.
“I’m a good fighter, right? But I’m also a sucker for a bare knuckle fight. I mean, you don’t get to have that in MMA, right? Because people want to take you down, they grab you,” East reflected. “I’ve caught myself getting a little bit wild just in fighting. I don’t need to fight like that. If it comes to a point where I feel like I’m outgunned… then I’m gonna go back to that. But I’ve made some improvements and I want to display more of what I’ve worked to accomplish this.”
With two decades of combat sports experience under his belt, East wants audiences to recognize that his value extends far beyond sheer toughness and durability. While entertaining brawls have built his fan base, this chapter of his career is defined by an emphasis on skill, strategy, and fight IQ.
“I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I mean, there’s a lot more to me than just throwing hard punches and going forward, right? I can fight and I want to do more of that. I want to show a little bit more of my training, not just my toughness because everybody knows I’m tough. I’m entertaining, but take a break this fight and show some skill. Next fight we could bang it out with somebody.”
That refinement of bare-knuckle specific fight IQ, East noted, ultimately comes down to economy of motion and surgical accuracy. In an environment where every landed blow carries immediate and devastating consequences, pacing and precision matter far more than volume.
“That’s it. Yeah, you got to be very accurate and it doesn’t take a lot, right? It doesn’t take a lot of shots. You just got to place your shots properly.”
Cody East on Unique BKB Fisticuffs Technology and the Heavyweight Division
BKB Bally’s Fight Night boasts a deeply stacked fight card from top to bottom, featuring notable names such as Jarod Grant and Cub Hawkins. Commenting on the exceptional depth of the Biloxi-based event, East praised the matchmakers for putting together a lineup where every matchup carries main-event significance.
“Yeah, all the fights are main event fights. I mean, like anywhere else, they’re all good fights. So it’s not a bad fight on the card,” East stated.
Adding an innovative layer to the event is BKB’s partnership with Force IQ technology, a system designed to track the real-time striking metrics of combatants inside the Trigon. When asked about this technological advancement in combat sports, East offered a lighthearted and futuristic vision of where telemetry in fighting might be heading.
“I think it’s pretty cool. I think it’s probably a matter of time before they’re going to fight and they have like a life bar like a video game [laughs]. It tracks your stamina and health like live action: the fighter. That’s what’s next I guess.”
Joking about how his own high-output, aggressive fighting style might interact with such advanced performance-tracking systems, East added with a laugh: “Yeah, for real. I’ll be on red. Be on red.”
As a veteran who has competed at the highest levels of mixed martial arts, including a stint in the UFC heavyweight division, East also shared his perspective on how the heavyweight weight class is promoted and managed across different organizations. While acknowledging the inherent unpredictability and unique challenges associated with heavyweights, he expressed optimism about the future of the division, pointing to the influx of elite athletic talent transitioning from other major sports leagues.
“Yeah, it’s just how they run their business. I mean it’s easy sometimes to be a heavyweight, you get lazy too. So it’s kind of how it is with heavyweights. You get some of the worst fights right but you also get some of the best knockouts and stuff. So they come hand in hand at heavyweight,” East explained. “I mean, you kind of know going into a heavyweight fight, you can go either way, right? You’re going to have a hard 30 seconds, then you might have two fat guys rolling around the rest of the fight, or you might have a great knockout.”
“Pero with Josh Hokit coming to the UFC now, I think we’re going to start seeing more guys from the NFL, more guys from the NBA, more high level athletes coming in. I think it’s really going to change a lot of the sport.”
