BKFC champion believes he was banned from Ryan Garcia event for "talking sh*t on the internet"

Ryan Garcia has previously teased wanting to make a splash in the world of bare-knuckle boxing, and that hasn't sat well with one of BKFC's reigning champions. Appearing on Bare Knuckle Bowker, Kai Stewart covered several subjects ahead of his looming featherweight title defense against Tommy Strydom at BKFC Dubai on April 5.

Garcia has taken to social media on multiple occasions to indicate his desire to fight in either BKFC or MMA when he was serving a suspension for the failed drug tests after his Devin Haney fight last April. Stewart himself has gone online to fire off shots at Garcia for considering coming into a sport that he is so dominant within.

When touching on a recent anecdote that got the BKFC champion thinking that there may be some sort of beef there with Garcia, Stewart said:

"I was supposed to go to the weigh ins or press conference for that [Ryan Garcia] fight that literally got cancelled the next day. But I showed up and they told me I couldn't get in. So yeah because like I was just going to walk in with some media guys and they were like nope."

"There was a lot of random people going in. So, I don't think that there was anything real behind it but you know, maybe they just didn't let me in because they saw me talking sh*t on the internet."

Check out the comments that Kai Stewart made about Ryan Garcia below(15:35 ):

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Ryan Garcia, Bare Knuckle, and the Kai Stewart backstory

In August 2024, Ryan Garcia called out names like Conor McGregor for a foray into bare-knuckle boxing but by all accounts did not call out Kai Stewart specifically. It would seem like Stewart took issue with Garcia wanting to step into the sport that he helms over in a big way.

[Screenshots courtesy: @RyanGarcia on X]

One of bare knuckle's top pound-for-pound fighters, Stewart, felt as if Garcia was overly confident about how he saw his aptitude for competing in BKFC. The 26-year-old is set to make his return to the world of gloved boxing against Rolando Romero on May 25. So, this potential crossover will not be happening any time soon.

Circa November last year, Stewart took to his personal Instagram page to post a lengthy address where he chastised Garcia for what he saw as pillow fighting. The BKFC featherweight champion also encouraged Garcia to take the gloves off and grow up.

The California native has not publically responded to the Instagram post but a fight with 'King Ry' and King Kai would certainly be a massive boon to BKFC and the sport of bare-knuckle boxing by proxy.