Money can make people take desperate measures. And sometimes they even put their health and life at risk. Something similar unfolded during Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) Newcastle on March 14 at the Utilita Arena in Newcastle upon Tyne. The promotion returned to the city for the sixth time, with a headlining fight between local fighter Mick Terrill and Jay ‘Ghost’ McFarlane for the promotion’s inaugural United Kingdom heavyweight title bout.

After 12 bouts, McFarlane and Terrill met in the center of the ring, but it didn’t last very long. Terrill won by TKO in Round 1 at just 0:53, as McFarlane, who was making his BKFC debut after a strong regional run, couldn’t withstand the pressure and got stopped quickly. But the reality of the loss dawned on him later when ‘Ghost’ shared a video on Instagram, describing what had actually happened. 

“I just want you to know that I’m kind of back to normal,” McFarlane told his followers. “I want to clear something up about the fight. I’ve not been completely honest over the last few years in regards to my medical situation. So, I’ve had nine procedures done on my right eye that I lost vision in, and none of them have been successful. So, I can only see out of my left side.”

With blindness in one eye, McFarlane confessed he went into the fight with vision from only one eye. However, things were made worse when he took a shot to the other working eye. 

“And with something that I was caught with on the inside, it scratched my eye, [and] for 20 minutes there… I just had complete darkness. And I couldn’t see,” he added in the video. “It’s why I had to be escorted to the medics. I’m not one for being scared or s***ting myself, but for 20 minutes there, my a****ole collapsed.”

Jay McFarlane thanked God because his vision had started returning in the aftermath. And he admitted that his fighting days are over.

“Now [I] know that was what I was rolling the dice,” he added. “I can’t go through that again.”

‘Ghost’ is now 1-1 in bare-knuckle fighting, having made his debut in the discipline in July last year. He fought Russia’s Vladislav Ivashchenko and secured a second-round TKO win. Before that, the 28-year-old had a boxing career, where he managed to rack up a record of 16-8, facing journeymen and debutants.

While McFarlane’s debut in BKFC didn’t go as he may have hoped for, it went splendidly for a former WWE star.

Gzim Selmani delivers a bloody knockout in BKFC debut

Former WWE and NXT tag team champion Gzim Selmani made a violent debut in BKFC, as he scored a bloody knockout victory on Saturday night. Selmani faced Daniel Curtin in a heavyweight clash and finished the fight in the second round after a brutal sequence of knockdowns.

Fighting as ‘The Albanian Psycho,’ Selmani started aggressively and looked dominant early. However, Curtin briefly stunned the debutant with a surprise knockdown that shifted the momentum for a bit. However, Selmani quickly recovered and unleashed a relentless attack. 

He dropped Curtin three times in the opening round while opening a massive cut on his opponent’s face. Curtin barely survived the round after the third knockdown came just before the bell. The finish came in round two when Selmani scored a fourth knockdown, forcing the referee to stop the bout.

Such fights highlight the dangers of bare-knuckle boxing. There’s a reason boxing evolved and adapted to using gloves. McFarlane is also at fault, as he entered the fight despite knowing his condition. But what do you make of it?