Jimmie “El Terror” Rivera earned his first victory under the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship banner on Friday.

He accomplished the feat with a unanimous decision over the debuting Bekhzod Usmonov at BKFC 43 in Omaha, NE. The former UFC headliner previously fought to a majority draw with Howard Davis in his highly anticipated BKFC debut in 2022.

Now that Rivera has his first victory under his belt, he has his sights set on another belt – the BKFC World Featherweight Championship.

“If it’s up to me, I’d like my next fight to be for the 145 belt – the winner of the title fight at BKFC 44,” Rivera says, referencing the hotly anticipated showdown between Louie Lopez and Kai Stewart for the vacant BKFC World Featherweight Title on June 9 in Great Falls, MT, LIVE on The BKFC App.

Lopez is 3-1, with all of his wins coming by knockout. Stewart is undefeated in his first three BKFC fights, winning two of his bouts by stoppage. Rivera thinks Lopez is more likely to win than Stewart. But, as the 11-time UFC vet is quick to point out, it doesn’t matter who he has to fight to accomplish his goal of sitting atop his division. 

“I don’t want to wait long to get back in there, and I want to have that belt wrapped around my waist,” he says. “It doesn’t matter who I have to fight to get there.”