David Tetreault has accumulated years of experience in the worlds of sports and entertainment promotion, but he’s heading up something unique in his role as CEO of Bare Knuckle Boxing. I spoke with Tetreault about his vision for the promotion and its booming success on TikTok.
Key Facts at a Glance
- Who: David Tetreault, CEO of BKB: Bare Knuckle Boxing
- Résumé: SVP of marketing at 20th Century Fox, then chief business officer at Golden Boy, then Triller
- Model: Run BKB like a sports franchise, sign pedigreed boxers and former MMA champions, tell their stories
- Distribution: VICE TV, talkSPORT and a first-of-its-kind TikTok partnership
- Global push: United States, United Kingdom, and a Mexico expansion via Zanfer
Who Is David Tetreault?
Tetreault’s spent more than a decade as a senior marketing executive at 20th Century Fox, working across studio films and sports properties, then roughly seven years as Golden Boy’s chief business officer under Oscar De La Hoya, where he helped build stars like Ryan Garcia.
He describes the deal that defined that run bluntly: “John and I carved out at the time what I think is the largest ever boxing promotional deal in history, making Canelo the highest paid athlete in the world.” A three-year stint at Triller followed before he joined BKB early last year.
What Is BKB’s Growth Plan?
Tetreault does not frame BKB like its rivals. “I don’t look at BKB as just another promotion like Matchroom or BKFC or Top Rank or Golden Boy,” he said. “I look at us as a sports team, whether it’s like Manchester United, the L.A. Dodgers, the Boston Celtics.”
That “athletes first” approach shapes the roster: pedigreed boxers alongside former UFC and PFL champions, from Victor Ortiz and Lee Selby to Yuriorkis Gamboa and the Vargas brothers on the “Summer of BKB” tour. Story is the engine. “There’s no way that we can flourish without telling the athlete’s stories,” he said, and an in-house media division plus a Bally’s-backed prospect series are both in the works.
How Big Is BKB’s TikTok Success?
The TikTok results are where the growth gets loud. “With our first pilot of that, which was at the Lee Selby show on June 27th in Cardiff, we blew the numbers off,” Tetreault said. “We had the highest watch time of any sports platform ever in the history of TikTok live sports.”
The promotion’s TikTok channel has been firing since the middle of April, but it has already accumulated more than 53 million likes.
He puts the deal in rare company, alongside Fox’s FIFA rights, ESPN and Red Bull, and treats the platform as real distribution rather than a highlight dump.
What’s Next for BKB?
Tetreault’s three-year target is mainstream appeal across multiple platforms. “Our goal is to have this thing mainstreamed so that on a Saturday night … people are tuning in.
We’re selling out arenas,” he said, before landing on the caveat that governs every move: “Without the right athletes, the right fighters on that stage, it doesn’t happen.” A September 19 world title card in Mexico via Zanfer is next, and BKB’s VICE deal expires this year with talks for a global broadcaster underway.
