“Royal” Ryan Reber had to dig deep at BKFC 57.
Reber was dropped by his opponent, Derek Perez, less than 30 seconds into the opening round of their bantamweight showdown Friday at the sold-out Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, FL.
The hard-charging Perez utilized his world-class clinch through the first two rounds of the action-packed bout, but Reber bit down on his mouthguard and weathered the early storm. The tides turned as Reber began to heat up, and eventually he stopped Perez in the fourth round.
“You’re going to have to really beat me up to get me out of there. It’s going to be really tough to take me out, and I made it really tough on my opponent,” the Clearwater, FL fighter says.
“In life and in the ring, you have to deal with adversity sometimes. And you have to make that decision – am I going to fold and throw my cards away, or am I going to put that poker face on and keep moving forward?”
It wasn’t easy, but Reber left Hollywood with his perfect record intact. Now 5-0, “Royal” has his sights set on the top of the stacked BKFC bantamweight division – specifically BKFC World Bantamweight Champion Keith “The Rockstar” Richardson (4-0).
“If they put me on KnuckleMania in Los Angeles on April 27, I know that would be a banger if Keith and I got on that,” he says.
“We’ll see what BKFC’s plan is – they may want Keith to defend his belt before then – and I’ll do whatever they want. All I know is that I’m going to get back in the gym ASAP so I’m ready when that call comes in.
“I’m ready for anything.”
