Jimmie Rivera is a former mixed martial artist fighting out of New Jersey. He made the jump over to the BKFC after a long and storied career facing the who’s who of the UFC’s bantamweight division. Opponents like John Dodson, Urijah Faber, Aljamain Sterling, Petr Yan and more are on the résumé of Rivera and he’s also fought at featherweight.

Rivera got his combat sports career started early back in his high school wrestling days at Ramsey High School. He built his MMA career off of the best base an athlete can have in the sport and has become a more than well-rounded fighter. You will rarely if ever see Rivera get out struck in the Squared Circle even if he doesn’t get his hand raised at the end of the bout. Besides competing at the highest level in the UFC, Rivera has also fought in Bellator, the World Series of Fighting, CFFC and King of the Cage, where he was the KOTC Bantamweight Champion.

A fighter that has reached the heights that Rivera has doesn’t get gifted easy fights in the BKFC. In his debut, he faced a high level prospect at the time and now bonafide contender and title challenger, Howard Davis. The two fought to a draw and as we look ahead to his biggest fight in his BKFC career at BKFC 82 in Newark, there are other names that should be mentioned from his three year history in the promotion. UFC veteran Jeremy Stephens, two time Bellator champion Daniel Straus and current BKFC featherweight champion Kai Stewart have toed the line against ‘El Terror’ and another notable mention is the dangerous Bekhzod Usmonov.  

Since 2007, Rivera has been giving his blood, sweat and tears to combat sports fans around the world but the New Jersey native is a family man through and through. He has a wife and two daughters who he’s obviously protective of and fights for in every aspect of life. He is an upstanding member of his community and decided to become a police officer, having graduated from the New Jersey Police Academy in 2023.