Estimated read time: 4-5 minutes
- Dan Gardner, a 41-year-old Utah sales exec, returns to fighting in BKFC.
- Gardner, a former MMA fighter, debuts in bare-knuckle boxing at BKFC 74.
- He aims to inspire others, including his family, with his comeback effort.
LEHI — Utah's Dan Gardner runs a lot of numbers every day during his day job.
But for the chief sales officer for a local supplements company, age is one of those numbers he hopes to crunch this weekend.
That's when Gardner, who had a brief professional fighting career in mixed martial arts nearly 13 years ago, will attempt something of a comeback at 41 years old when the former state champion wrestler and father of three makes his Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut May 10 during BKFC 74 at the Maverik Center.
He'll fight fellow BKFC debutante Shane Fichter in a light heavyweight bout (185 pounds) on a pay-per-view card headlined by Mike Richman and Josh Dyer. Fellow Utah resident Ben Moa, who lives and trains in Ogden, will face Bobby Brents on the same card.
But Gardner, who excelled at power lifting and jiujitsu during his MMA career, will be stepping into the "square circle" as a novice while fighting in front of his wife and three children for the first time at BKFC 74.
Where did such a comeback begin? It wasn't from an overwhelming desire to prove his mettle or smash his face in a new fight discipline. It came in part from his brother and boss at Orem-based Bucked Up, a title sponsor of the BKFC.
Gardner still works at Bucked Up during the day, training at the company's gym every morning, working his full shift, and then working out with local MMA legend Clay "Cassius" Collard at his gym in Lehi in the evenings. Getting Bucked Up CEO Ryan Gardner to use the company gym was easy.
Less so was convincing his wife to let him take a swing at a comeback.
"At first she said, 'heck no; he's already ugly enough,'" the younger Gardner joked. "But after she saw how I am when I get passionate for something, it's hard to tell me no. And she told me to jump in, full feet.
"Then there was an opportunity to do it here in Utah, in front of my hometown," he added. "I knew I had to get in there."
Gardner fought professionally six times in his early years, when he earned his nickname "DJ Dan" by working a side gig as a DJ at local college parties.
But his last fight was more than a dozen years ago — and in a discipline that he admits is "a totally different game" than BKFC.
The bare-knuckle boxing promotion was founded by David Feldman in 2018 and turned the first legal "dirty boxing" event in the United States since 1889 at a hockey rink in Cheyenne, Wyoming, into the estimated $400 million business it is today.
"In MMA, I felt comfortable and confident because I knew I could always take them down," Gardner said. "In this one, it's anybody's game; it just takes one hit. ... My game plan here is, how well can I defend myself? I've got short arms, so I've really got to work my strategy before they can work theirs."
Enter Collard, the 32-year-old veteran of the Professional Fighters League and local legend from Castle Dale. Collard has fought in a variety of styles since his first bout two weeks removed from his 18th birthday.
And the 155-pound featherweight thinks Gardner has what it takes to compete in BKFC.
"As soon as Dan decided to take this fight, he was all in," said Collard, who will be in Gardner's corner Saturday night. "He's dieting, and he's doing everything he's supposed to in order to be a good bare-knuckled fighter. It's all about his dedication and his preparation."
Without revealing too much of the team's game plan, Collard said the fighter plans to "go in there and get it done early" as a first-timer.
"Bare-knuckle boxing is just dirty boxing," Collard noted. "As long as you're in a clinch and have one hand free to punch, you can keep fighting. It isn't until a clinch is locked up that they are going to break you up and reset you."
Beyond the fight, Gardner hopes his return to the ring can inspire others — at least his wife and children, who never saw him fight during his initial pro run.
If nothing else comes from Saturday, it's his hope that his kids can accomplish anything with hard work and the right mindset — even fighting at 41.
"We get complacent, and we tell ourselves that we're old. But that's just a mindset," said Gardner.
"I've had injuries now, and it's a lot harder to recover," he added. "But what I want to show everybody is that, if you want to do something and can put your mind to it, you can achieve it. It doesn't matter what the goal is."
Tickets are available at bkfc.com and Ticketmaster, and fans can use the promo code "DJ DAN" to get 25% off.
