Author: Ariel Simpson

Ring of Honor, a wrestling promotion under the AEW banner that was founded in Philadelphia, will return to the city on Aug. 21 to host its pay-per-view event, Death Before Dishonor, at the 2300 Arena for a second consecutive year.

“There’s a great tradition of Ring of Honor wrestling in Philadelphia,” said Tony Khan, the president and CEO of All Elite Wrestling. “It’s very fitting that one of the most important shows every year in the Ring of Honor calendar, the great Death Before Dishonor event, is coming to Philadelphia.”

Ring of Honor got its start in Philly over 20 years ago, filming shows at the 2300 Arena for most of its run in the 2000s, before Khan purchased the promotion in 2022.

“I went to see wrestling there when I was very young, around 13 years old,” Khan said. “ … It means a lot to go back there. There’s tremendous history at the 2300 Arena for Ring of Honor. It’s just a great tradition of wrestling there.”

Last year’s Death Before Dishonor card took place during AEW’s multiweek residency at the arena, and was headlined by matches between Athena and Mina Shirakawa, Bandido and Hechicero, and Q.T. Marshall and Emmy Award-winning actor Paul Walter Hauser.

Khan says fans can expect another star-studded event, featuring wrestlers like Dalton Castle, The Outrunners, and more.

“I really loved the Death Before Dishonor show we had there last year,” Khan said. “It was tremendous. So much has happened in ROH in the past year. Bandido and Athena have maintained dominant reigns and have wrestled all over the world and have shown fans why they are two of the greatest champions in the sport.

“We’ve seen a number of great women and men emerging in ROH and I think the shows recently have been tremendous wrestling shows. So there’s a lot to be excited about in ROH as we approach Death Before Dishonor next month.”

Fans can get tickets online starting July 16 at 10 a.m. through Etix.com. Presale tickets will be available starting July 14. And fans interested in early access presale opportunities can register on AEW’s website.

Less than 24 hours before Philadelphia Stadium (aka Lincoln Financial Field) celebrates America’s 250th birthday with the city’s final FIFA World Cup match, fighting fans made their way across the street to Xfinity Mobile Arena to celebrate a day early with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship’s Liberty Brawl.

Liberty Brawl, a fight card dedicated to the celebration of America, gave the fans in attendance early fireworks with seven knockouts, which resulted in a big night for Philly fighters.

Here’s everything you missed:

Local Philly fighters star

Eight local fighters decorated the BKFC Liberty Brawl card: Philly natives Maxiono Griffin, Johnny Garbarino, Cody Russell, Zedekiah Montanez, Matthew Turnbull, and Pat Sullivan, Levittown native Lex Ludlow, and Chester native Anthony Pagan.

“I’m a big Lex Ludlow guy,” said 37-year-old New Jersey native Michael Barbour. “He’s a good dude. He’s got a good story. We came to support Lex.

“I’m from Jersey, but I appreciate the energy at any event. So when the local guys come out, like Lex, [Johnny] Garbarino, seeing the crowd go wild, it’s awesome. Say what you want about Philly, they love their sports. They love their local guys, and they really support them. So, as a fight fan, I really appreciate that.”

All eight of the local fighters walked out victorious, including fan favorites Garbarino and Ludlow. Garbarino remained undefeated after defeating Mike Richman by unanimous decision, which led to some boos from the crowd.

Afterward, Garbarino revealed he couldn’t get the knockout after injuring his right hand.

Meanwhile, Ludlow stole the show — finishing his opponent in nine seconds before cutting a wrestling-inspired promo calling out Mike Perry and Darren Till.

USA represents with help from the Sixers Stixers

On the precipice of Independence Day, Livi Pack, 16, and Maddox Hoefler, 16, wandered through the concourse in American flag overalls with their faces painted in stars and stripes.

“We wanted to do something that shows our pride in our country,” Hoefler said. “So, we decided to … paint our faces. Obviously, we’re not artists but we had a fun time doing it. We just love our country.”

Pack added: “It’s America’s 250th birthday. So we got to do our big one. I’m very American. I love to show my pride, even if politics are a mess right now. I’m still true to who I am. So I just wanted to do the most.”

For the country’s 250th birthday, it was only fitting that the card’s main event featured a USA vs. the United Kingdom matchup. Austin Trout, a Texas native and former World Boxing Association light middleweight champion, faced the U.K.’s Ben Bonner.

To get the crowd going, Trout made quite the entrance with a walkout inspired by Apollo’s entrance in Rocky IV. But he had some help from the Sixers Stixers and the tune of James Brown’s “Living in America,” before ultimately suffering a similar fate — getting knocked out in the second round.

Philly fans prepare for a summer of combat sports

Liberty Brawl was the promotion’s third event at Xfinity Mobile Arena — it made its debut at the stadium in January 2025 with KnuckleMania V, where it set a local modern day combat sports record with 17,762 people in attendance. Since then, it’s continued to bring Philly fight fans more action.

“I’ve been a fan of BKFC for a couple years now,” Pack said. “I went to Knucklemania last year, so I had to come back to Philly because everybody’s here. We got to support Cannoli. We got to support Brit. … I think the BKFC is absolutely amazing. I think it can be bigger than the UFC, no doubt. Dave Feldman, keep doing what you do. Thank you for putting on these amazing shows for us.”

The action in Philly continues next month when the UFC makes its highly anticipated return to the city for its first major championship event in the city in 15 years.

“The [UFC and BKFC] crowds are a little different. UFC fans are very hardcore,” Barbour said. “Bare knuckle people, people of Philly streets, will come here, and they’ll just fight people in the stands while they’re watching these fights. So that’s a big difference. UFC has some good fans, but there’s different types of caliber fans for Bare knuckle.”

Two title fights already have been announced — Islam Makhachev will defend his welterweight title against Ian Machado Garry, and Mackenzie Dern will defend her women’s strawweight title for the first time against Gillian Robertson.

The last time the UFC was in town, there wasn’t a local fighter on the card, despite the city’s deep roster of talent, although Philly fighter-turned-broadcaster Paul Felder was in the booth. This time around, Eddie Alvarez, a former UFC champion and Kensington native, hopes it will be different.

“We need our hometown guys,” Alvarez said. “We need Sean Brady. We need Joe Pyfer. We need Pat Sabatini. We need Philadelphia’s best, Philadelphia’s own on those UFC cards. And, sadly they’re not. I don’t know why they do it that way, but they’re not. I don’t know if anybody Philadelphia homegrown is on that Aug. 15 card.”

West Philly native Jeremiah Wells, a standout wrestler at Overbrook, currently is scheduled to face Myktybek Orolbai.

One-round war debuts

BKFC made history on Friday night, hosting the promotion’s first one-round war, in which two fighters battle it out in one two-minute round. Chester’s Pagan walked out victorious over Zach Pannell.

In January 2025, Matthew Turnbull sat in the crowd as a fan to watch as Eddie Alvarez headlined KnuckleMania V at Xfinity Mobile Arena, then known as the Wells Fargo Center. Despite a tough loss in his hometown, Alvarez, a Kensington native and former UFC champion, received a hero’s welcome from the crowd.

“It was one of the craziest sporting events I’ve ever been to live,” Turnbull, a Northeast Philly native, said. “The energy in the building, especially for the main event when Eddie was fighting, I never experienced anything like it. I mean, there’s no one bigger than Eddie. I already saw the best come out of the area. So I’m just going to follow his footsteps.”

Over a year later, with a ring set up in the middle of Stateside Live! for open workouts, Turnbull hit mitts with Alvarez as he prepared for his own Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut Friday at the same venue.

“Bare Knuckle was never on my radar, but then I saw the Eddie Alvarez main event and I was like, ‘This is incredible,’” Turnbull said. “And then they hit me up, and I was like, ‘Why not?’ … There’s no lies. You can do the talking and all the fun aspects of getting eyes on you, but when you get into there, it’s nothing but the truth. And I’m a big fan of the truth.”

Turnbull describes his fighting style as “controlled chaos.” He got his start after he was kicked off Franklin Towne Charter’s high school wrestling team. Afterward, his coach recommended training in jujitsu, which led to him competing in the Philly area-based MMA promotion Art of War Cage Fighting. Three months ago, Turnbull successfully defended his featherweight championship with a submission win against Ryan Yapsam.

Now, he’s focused on bare-knuckle fighting, which comes with a different training regimen.

“We’re just using our hands and trying to get used to conditioning our hands for bare knuckles without hurting them in the process,” Turnbull said. “So training with hand wraps as opposed to gloves and doing hand strengthening techniques that I wouldn’t do when I’m going to have a pair of gloves on my hands when I fight. But the discipline is still there. It’s just a little bit different of a path than I’m used to.”

Turnbull has been training with Alvarez out of his gym, Underground Kings MMA in Newtown.

“In order to do this sport, one of the leading things you need is toughness,” Alvarez said. “You need to be able to take a shot and take damage and keep going. There’s guys who are very technical boxers who don’t do well here. You’re going to take damage. You’re going to get hurt. You got to be able to overcome. You got to be able to keep going in the face of adversity.

“Matt Turnbull is that guy. He’s that guy that keeps going, no matter what is going on. He’s built for it. For him, it’s just about honing his skills in boxing. Over the last two months, I’ve never seen a guy grow so much in one sport. So I’m excited to see his showing on July 3.”

Turnbull originally was scheduled to compete against fellow Philly native Pat Sullivan, who recently pulled out of the fight. The two share some bad blood, including an altercation at open workouts that resulted in Sullivan allegedly biting Turnbull in the back of the head.

“We’re not going to talk about [someone] who pulls out from a fight because he realized he bit off more than he can chew,” Turnbull said. “Now, I’m fighting Brandon Honsvick. … He’s not as big as a name because he’s not a clown like that. So he doesn’t have a bunch of eyeballs on him and stuff like that. But he’s a much more skilled fighter and someone more deserving of being in the ring with me.”

Sullivan still will compete on the card against a new opponent, Colin Reeser. Meanwhile, Turnbull is set to make his debut against Honsvick on the night before Independence Day in the birthplace of America at Xfinity Mobile Arena.

“If you’re from Philly, you dream of fighting in that arena,” Turnbull said. “That’s what the goal is. And to be able to do it, especially after people like Eddie, it’s a lot of pressure. So it’s an exciting thing for me.

“I think I embody what it is to be a Philly fighter. My Instagram name is thephillyfighter. So I try to embody the rawness of it, the intensity, the leave it all in the cage or in the ring mentality, not turning down opportunities or opponents, believe in yourself, and keep fighting until the end.”