Bare-knuckle fighting comes to Scotland for the first time on Saturday 7 November, and the home fighter has a new opponent. Conor Cooke was due to defend the BKFC UK light heavyweight title against Sean Weir at BKFC 96 at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow. Cooke is out, and Leigh Cohoon steps in. BKFC now lists Weir vs Cohoon as the championship bout, with the main card at 14:00 ET, which is 19:00 GMT and 21:00 in Riga. Weir is 3-0 as a pro and has never needed more than two rounds. Cohoon is 4-1 in BKFC and took the fight in fight week.
Tale of the tape
 Sean Weir | Leigh Cohoon | |
|---|---|---|
| Record | 3-0 (2-0 BKFC) | 4-1 (BKFC) |
| Height (BKFC) | 190.5 cm (6’3″) | 182.9 cm (6’0″) |
| Nickname | The Butcher | The Boom |
| From | Scotland | Greater Manchester, England |
| Combat background | Bare knuckle (pro debut July 2025) | Pro MMA before BKFC |
| Last fight | Stopped Matthew Hodgson in round 1, 1:42 (March 2026) | Beat Ste Wallwork, TKO, end of round 2 (September 2026) |
Sean Weir: three fights, three stoppages
Weir is still new to the sport. He won his pro debut on a Scottish show in Edinburgh in July 2025 and has stopped both of his BKFC opponents. He walks forward, throws heavy and doesn’t seem to mind getting hit, which makes him great to watch and also a little easy to find.
The Joe Lister fight told us the most about him. Lister was unbeaten, and he put Weir down twice before Weir got up and stopped him 1:25 into the second round. In March he needed only 102 seconds to stop Matthew Hodgson in Newcastle. His three pro fights have lasted about seven minutes between them.
Recent form:
- 14 Mar 2026, BKFC Fight Night Newcastle: stopped Matthew Hodgson in round 1 (1:42)
- 27 Sep 2025, BKFC 81 Manchester: beat Joe Lister, TKO, round 2, 1:25 (got up from two knockdowns)
- 5 Jul 2025, Impact BKB 1 (Edinburgh): beat John Ferguson, TKO, round 1
Leigh Cohoon: the late replacement who finishes people
Cohoon came to bare knuckle from MMA, and BKFC’s results pages show all four of his BKFC wins as stoppages. He started at light heavyweight, stopping Kane Wilkinson and James O’Brien in 2025, then moved down to middleweight for his last three fights. This is a step back up in weight against a bigger man: BKFC lists Weir at 6’3″ and Cohoon at 6’0″.
His only loss is the fight to learn from. George Thorpe beat him on all three cards over five rounds at BKFC 90 in May (49-46, 49-46, 50-45), so Cohoon has been ten minutes with a good opponent and come out the other side. He bounced back in September in Manchester, where his fight with Ste Wallwork was stopped at the end of the second round. That was six weeks ago, so he comes in active, even if he hasn’t had a full camp for Weir.
Recent form:
- 26 Sep 2026, BKFC 94 Manchester: beat Ste Wallwork, TKO, end of round 2 (middleweight)
- 30 May 2026, BKFC 90 Birmingham: lost to George Thorpe, unanimous decision (49-46, 49-46, 50-45) (middleweight)
- 13 Dec 2025, BKFC Fight Night Derby: beat Cory Hardy, KO, round 3, 1:39 (middleweight)
- 29 Mar 2025, BKFC Fight Night Manchester: beat James O’Brien, TKO, round 2 (light heavyweight)
- 8 Feb 2025, BKFC Fight Night Newcastle: beat Kane Wilkinson, TKO, round 3, 0:33, after two knockdowns (light heavyweight)
How the styles match up
Both men come forward and both want to finish, so this is unlikely to be a slow fight. Weir has the size and the power, and he will have a full arena behind him in his first fight on home soil in BKFC. Cohoon has more fights in the BKFC ring, he has been the full five rounds, and he has shown he can put a man down more than once in the same fight.
Neither man is hard to find. Weir was dropped twice by Lister, and Cohoon lost a clear decision to Thorpe. In a sport with no gloves and two-minute rounds, that matters more than anything on paper.
Key factors:
- Size. Cohoon’s last three fights were at middleweight. Weir is the natural light heavyweight and, on BKFC’s numbers, three inches taller.
- The first two rounds. Weir has never needed more than two. If he lands clean early, the late change of opponent won’t matter much.
- Rounds three to five. Weir has never been there as a pro. Cohoon has gone five with Thorpe, and he finished Wilkinson and Hardy in the third.
- Short notice. Cohoon fought six weeks ago, so fitness should not be a problem, but he has had days, not weeks, to plan for Weir.
- The crowd. BKFC’s first night in Scotland, with a Scottish fighter in the main event. Cohoon will be the away fighter in every sense.
Our pick: Weir by TKO
We are picking Sean Weir to win the title by TKO inside the first three rounds. He is the bigger man, he hits harder, and he has already shown he can get off the floor and still finish. Cohoon is dangerous and more experienced in the BKFC ring, and if this goes into the fourth and fifth rounds we would give him a real chance. But moving back up in weight on short notice against a heavy-handed home fighter is a hard job. Expect a fast start from Weir, and if Cohoon survives it, this becomes a very different fight.
Co-main event: Stevie Ray vs Danny Christie
Stevie Ray makes his bare-knuckle debut in the middleweight co-main event. He is one of the best-known Scottish MMA fighters, with 11 UFC fights and a 26-13 MMA record, and fighting at home will suit him. He meets Danny Christie (5-3 BKFC), who BKFC’s fight-week article calls a former BKFC UK middleweight champion. Christie is 41 and knows exactly what bare knuckle feels like; Ray is 36 and doesn’t yet. That gap in experience is real, but Ray is a southpaw with good timing, and his hands have always been his best weapon. Pick: Ray by decision.
Featured fight: Gzim Selmani vs Reece Heer
Former WWE wrestler Gzim Selmani, known as “Rezar” in WWE, is 1-0 in BKFC and fights at heavyweight, third from the top of the main card, against Reece Heer. In March in Newcastle he was knocked down, got up and knocked Dan Curtin out 22 seconds into the second round. Heer (1-1) is the more experienced bare-knuckle fighter of the two, and BKFC is billing him as Selmani’s toughest test yet. Selmani stands 1.91 m. Pick: Selmani by KO.
The rest of the card
Kieron Sewell (2-1) takes on Scott Malone at bantamweight on the main card, with Barry Boyle vs Kaseem Saleem at heavyweight, Doalty Torrance vs KJ Metcalfe (1-0) at welterweight, Cory Chapman (1-0) vs Lewis Dixon at bantamweight and Dan Morel vs Owen Webster at featherweight. BKFC’s Free Fights segment has three bouts: Lewis Knox (5-2), the most experienced name outside the top three fights, against Tommy Carus at featherweight, Danny Moir (3-1-1) against Rhys Pagan at light heavyweight, and Ian Mulroy against Charlie Thomson at middleweight. Several of the Scottish fighters, including Doalty Torrance and Ian Mulroy, are making their BKFC debuts.
Where to watch Weir vs Cohoon BKFC LIVE Stream
BKFC 96 is on Saturday 7 November 2026 at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow. Start times from BKFC’s event page (the US is on Eastern Standard Time from 1 November, and the UK is on GMT):
| ET | GMT | Riga | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free Fights | 13:00 | 18:00 | 20:00 |
| Main card | 14:00 | 19:00 | 21:00 |
Weir vs Cohoon is the main event, so it will be the last fight of the night, well after the 21:00 Riga main card start. BKFC doesn’t publish exact walkout times.
How to watch: BKFC says the whole event is live worldwide on The BKFC App (BKFC+), its own streaming service.
