Haverhill boxer to compete in a bare-knuckle fight at Fenway Park

I'm Lisa Mullins in Boston. A boxing ring will take over the baseball diamond at Fenway Park tomorrow. Now the ballpark has hosted boxing events before, but this time it's different. It's bare-knuckle fighting. Featherweight Harry the Hitman Gigliotti of Haverhill will fight for the BKFC, the bare-knuckle fighting championship. He described bare-knuckle fighting to WBOR's Lynn Jollica. It's a brutal sport with a lot of grit. Pretty barbaric. Modern day gladiators taking the ring when the referee says knuckle up the bell rings and it's time to rock and roll. Okay, so in MMA fighting there are like open finger gloves. You don't wear anything like that. You have gauze tape wrapped around the wrist and like the lower part of the hand. Basically gauze and tape just to hold and restrict the bones in place so we don't have breaks and wear and tear. And it just goes right up to the knuckle line. And we should point out there's no kicking or elbowing like in mixed martial arts as well. Correct, correct. But there is Thai plumbing, which is basically like inside dirty boxing. You can grab the neck and pull down and use that for leverage. And we should say legal professional bare-knuckle fighting just started in the U.S. in 2018 after being banned for more than a century. The last time there was a fight like this was the late 1800s, I guess, before 2018. So how did your youth in the Haverhill area eventually lead you to professional fighting, this form of it? Well, I mean, I grew up in a boxing gym. I'm in my family. I come from four generations of boxing, stemming all the way from my great grandfather down the line to my grandfather, my uncle, to my cousins. My cousin Jeffrey, to hell raise a phrase, God rest his soul. I lost him unfortunately. He was like my role model, my biggest icon. I grew up from like the age of six years old fighting in the neighborhood. And you said you were actually picked on some as a kid? I was picked on as a kid as well. I had a lisp and a learning disability. So people targeted me. Kind of had to fight your way out. You either stand on business or you're going to get picked on. Well, let's get back to the risks. I've read that the incidence of concussions is actually lower than in gloved boxing because there isn't as much maybe wild punching. Is it more strategic because fighters, you risk breaking your hand when you're hitting the hard head, the forehead or teeth of your opponent? Is that true? Obviously the bone to bone contact, there's a little bit more wear and tear and breaks than boxing because you've got those pillows in your hand. So the referee can see the damage that outlies. Where in boxing, the internal damage, the brain's getting constantly rattled and that's causing a lot of that wear and tear and brain damage that you can't see because you're going longer rounds and it's three minutes. So these are shorter bouts in the bare knuckle fighting. Correct. But it looks more violent and bloody with the bare knuckles, right? What are your thoughts on the level of violence? Do you have any concerns about it? I mean, if you're good at what you do and you're defensively sound and you can play great offense as well, I think that you can take this really far. But a lot of the guys that just come in there thinking this is just a brawl, I think it's evolved past that. Is there anything you do to increase your safety in a fight? Rolling. Rolling a lot off the punches, trying to catch it off the shoulder or rolling. And every action needs a reaction. You have to have something behind it. You can't just sit there and wait. It's a fast paced sport. And how do you feel about fighting at Fenway Park as this sport is starting to grow? The Red Sox were the first professional sports team I'd ever seen live. So it was like going to that stadium, me and my brother and my dad used to get 15 tickets every season from like 2004 to 2008 or 9. And it was just, it's just a dream come true. Surreal opportunity. And I just can't wait to be on full display on fight night. And fight night is tomorrow night at Fenway Park. WBUR's Lynn Joliker spoke with Harry the Hitman Jigliotti of Haverhill who will fight King Kai Stewart of Montana.