{"id":141040,"date":"2025-05-29T09:26:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-29T09:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141040\/"},"modified":"2025-05-29T09:26:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-29T09:26:13","slug":"incredible-photos-of-britains-bare-knuckle-fight-club-scene","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/141040\/","title":{"rendered":"Incredible Photos of Britain&#8217;s Bare Knuckle Fight Club Scene"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>This story is from the spring 2025 edition of VICE magazine: THE ROCK BOTTOM ISSUE. To subscribe to receive 4 print issues of our newly relaunched magazine each year, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/vice-magazine-is-coming-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Spartan Bare Knuckle Fight Club is the UK\u2019s only licensed 8x8ft <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/tag\/bare-knuckle-boxing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">bare-knuckle<\/a> pit fighting syndicate. A kind of rolling mobile punch-up that draws baying crowds across the north of England, Spartan bouts are short, bloody, and brutal, and often end in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/tag\/fighting\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">knockouts<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Yet beneath the violence, the club aims to be a lifeline in difficult times. It was initially set up to prevent <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/tag\/knife-crime\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">knife crime<\/a>, allowing disputes to be settled before they escalate, with one condition: you shake hands and the argument is left in the pit.<\/p>\n<p>Over seven years, Spartan has become a form of community and therapy for men battling ill mental health, addiction, and crime. A new VICE film, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/spartan-bare-knuckle-fighting-documentary-part-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Spartan Bare Knuckle<\/a>, follows the club and some of its key fighters in the build up to its main summer event, Fight Fest.<\/p>\n<p>Watch it in the player below:<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\tPlay video<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748510768_911_hqdefault.jpg\" alt=\"Play\"\/><\/p>\n<p>These photographs, taken by Jonangelo Molinari before, during, and after the production of the documentary, offer a glimpse into this world of cathartic belligerence.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1591\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/33740005.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd cheer on a fight\" class=\"wp-image-1875772\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CQ6A7664.jpg\" alt=\"A man bleeds from the face\" class=\"wp-image-1875773\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3621\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/33620038.jpg\" alt=\"A crowd film people fighting\" class=\"wp-image-1875774\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3621\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/33740015.jpg\" alt=\"A fighter prays to the ceiling\" class=\"wp-image-1875776\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3621\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/33890005.jpg\" alt=\"A fighter recovers in the corner of the ring\" class=\"wp-image-1875778\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3621\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/34620026.jpg\" alt=\"A man has his damaged nose attended to\" class=\"wp-image-1875779\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"2970\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Bareknuckle-norman.jpg\" alt=\"A man in a leather hat poses with a parrot\" class=\"wp-image-1875780\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1600\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/CQ6A8100.jpg\" alt=\"A man is punched in the throat\" class=\"wp-image-1875781\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DSCF2161.jpg\" alt=\"A fighter poses outside houses with his winning belts\" class=\"wp-image-1875782\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"3200\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/DSCF4720.jpg\" alt=\"A fighter poses topless at home\" class=\"wp-image-1875783\"  \/><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"2400\" height=\"1907\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/1748510773_212_1.jpg\" alt=\"A fighter stands beneath blue skies with his winning belt\" class=\"wp-image-1875769\"  \/>Photos by Jonangelo Molinari<\/p>\n<p>Follow Jonangelo Molinari on Instagram <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/jonangelo_molinari\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">@jonangelo_molinari<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Watch Spartan Bare Knuckle <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/spartan-bare-knuckle-fighting-documentary-part-one\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a> now.<\/p>\n<p>This story is from the spring 2025 edition of VICE magazine: THE ROCK BOTTOM ISSUE. To subscribe to receive 4 print issues of our newly relaunched magazine each year, click\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.vice.com\/en\/article\/vice-magazine-is-coming-back\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story is from the spring 2025 edition of VICE magazine: THE ROCK BOTTOM ISSUE. To subscribe to&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":141041,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[61113,748,393,10516,4884,12151,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-141040","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-bare-knuckle","11":"tag-britain","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-fighting","14":"tag-great-britain","15":"tag-knife-crime","16":"tag-northern-ireland","17":"tag-scotland","18":"tag-uk","19":"tag-united-kingdom","20":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114590409534129561","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=141040"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/141040\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/141041"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=141040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=141040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=141040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}