BKFC 17: Pakistani refugee Ezatullah Kakar makes stunning USA bare knuckle debut, knocking out Chris Sarro in 33 seconds
- The 29-year-old says it was his last chance to make an impact after waiting seven years in a refugee camp before arriving in the USA in June, 2020
- The Balochistan native, who fled Pakistan after being threatened by militants, says his family watched his fight live for the first time
Ezatullah Kakar was behind the wheel of a container truck on a California road – a long-haul assignment that took him out of his base in Philadelphia for four days – when the call came.
It was someone from the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship promotion. Kakar, a refugee who spent seven years in detention in Papua New Guinea – most of it at the notorious Manus camp – was about to fulfil a dream.
But the former kick-boxer had only three weeks to prepare for his first fight in the United States since being given asylum in June last year.
It was his last chance to show what he can do, having had a previous bout with the BKFC cancelled at the last minute. Scraping enough money together to buy shoes and shorts, the 29-year-old made a stunning debut at BKFC 17 in Birmingham, Alabama, taking 33 seconds to knock out American Chris Sarro (3-1 before the fight) in their cruiserweight bout on April 30.
An emotional Kakar, who suffered a dislocated shoulder two weeks before his fight, fell to the ground in prostration, knowing that his family was watching one of his fights for the first time from Balochistan – the city he fled almost a decade ago because of threats to his life from local militia.