BKFC continues to grow.

On Wednesday, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship president David Feldman confirmed that the fight league has joined forces with the Japanese promotion RIZIN in a move that includes a talent exchange program, with RIZIN fighters to compete in bare-knuckle bouts starting July.

The move comes just weeks after it was also confirmed that Conor McGregor had come on board as an investor in the bare-knuckle organisation.

“Today we get to announce the official partnership with BKFC and RIZIN to produce Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship shows in Japan and all over the southeast Asia region, as well as assist RIZIN with whatever else they need from around the world,” Feldman said on Wednesday edition of The MMA Hour, via MMA Fighting, while flanked by RIZIN chief Nobuyuki Sakakibara.

“We’re really super excited about this partnership and to partner with such a legend like Sakakibara.”

The partnership between the companies will also see BKFC athletes compete on RIZIN cards, including BKFC flyweight champion John Dodson at an event on July 12.

For his part, Sakakibara — who was instrumental in the growth of the legendary PRIDE promotion — said that the deal made sense for all concerned.

“We truly feel the potential of BKFC,” Sakakibara said. “I do believe this is happening all over the world in the combat sports industry, is that everything is kind of being still and all the fans are looking for a new movement. They’re looking for new action. Exactly what’s happening in Japan. Obviously stateside they’re doing Power Slap and all that kind of stuff is starting to take off, but same thing here in Japan, a lot of people are wanting new things. They’re wanting more excitement.

“We do believe that BKFC has everything it takes to deliver that new excitement over here. The Japanese fans, they like it, and more so we do believe that David and his team are extremely professional and we believe they know what they’re doing. It just only made sense for us to partner with them.”