A year ago, Matt Turnbull was watching BKFC from the crowd. Now, he’s ready to bring ‘controlled chaos’ into the ring.
Matt Turnbull went from watching Eddie Alvarez in the crowd at Xfinity Mobile Arena to preparing for his BKFC debut on Friday.
In January 2025, Matthew Turnbull sat in the crowd as a fan to watch as Eddie Alvarez headlined KnuckleMania V at Xfinity Mobile Arena, then known as the Wells Fargo Center. Despite a tough loss in his hometown, Alvarez, a Kensington native and former UFC champion, received a hero’s welcome from the crowd.
“It was one of the craziest sporting events I’ve ever been to live,” Turnbull, a Northeast Philly native, said. “The energy in the building, especially for the main event when Eddie was fighting, I never experienced anything like it. I mean, there’s no one bigger than Eddie. I already saw the best come out of the area. So I’m just going to follow his footsteps.”
» READ MORE: Philly Muay Thai fighter and artist Gianna Vadino has a new medium: Kicking butt
Over a year later, with a ring set up in the middle of Stateside Live! for open workouts, Turnbull hit mitts with Alvarez as he prepared for his own Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut Friday at the same venue.
“Bare Knuckle was never on my radar, but then I saw the Eddie Alvarez main event and I was like, ‘This is incredible,’” Turnbull said. “And then they hit me up, and I was like, ‘Why not?’ … There’s no lies. You can do the talking and all the fun aspects of getting eyes on you, but when you get into there, it’s nothing but the truth. And I’m a big fan of the truth.”
Turnbull describes his fighting style as “controlled chaos.” He got his start after he was kicked off Franklin Towne Charter’s high school wrestling team. Afterward, his coach recommended training in jujitsu, which led to him competing in the Philly area-based MMA promotion Art of War Cage Fighting. Three months ago, Turnbull successfully defended his featherweight championship with a submission win against Ryan Yapsam.
Now, he’s focused on bare-knuckle fighting, which comes with a different training regimen.
“We’re just using our hands and trying to get used to conditioning our hands for bare knuckles without hurting them in the process,” Turnbull said. “So training with hand wraps as opposed to gloves and doing hand strengthening techniques that I wouldn’t do when I’m going to have a pair of gloves on my hands when I fight. But the discipline is still there. It’s just a little bit different of a path than I’m used to.”
Turnbull has been training with Alvarez out of his gym, Underground Kings MMA in Newtown.
“In order to do this sport, one of the leading things you need is toughness,” Alvarez said. “You need to be able to take a shot and take damage and keep going. There’s guys who are very technical boxers who don’t do well here. You’re going to take damage. You’re going to get hurt. You got to be able to overcome. You got to be able to keep going in the face of adversity.
“Matt Turnbull is that guy. He’s that guy that keeps going, no matter what is going on. He’s built for it. For him, it’s just about honing his skills in boxing. Over the last two months, I’ve never seen a guy grow so much in one sport. So I’m excited to see his showing on July 3.”
» READ MORE: Johnny 'Cannoli' Garbarino to headline BKFC's 'Liberty Brawl'
Turnbull originally was scheduled to compete against fellow Philly native Pat Sullivan, who recently pulled out of the fight. The two share some bad blood, including an altercation at open workouts that resulted in Sullivan allegedly biting Turnbull in the back of the head.
“We’re not going to talk about [someone] who pulls out from a fight because he realized he bit off more than he can chew,” Turnbull said. “Now, I’m fighting Brandon Honsvick. … He’s not as big as a name because he’s not a clown like that. So he doesn’t have a bunch of eyeballs on him and stuff like that. But he’s a much more skilled fighter and someone more deserving of being in the ring with me.”
Sullivan still will compete on the card against a new opponent, Colin Reeser. Meanwhile, Turnbull is set to make his debut against Honsvick on the night before Independence Day in the birthplace of America at Xfinity Mobile Arena.
“If you’re from Philly, you dream of fighting in that arena,” Turnbull said. “That’s what the goal is. And to be able to do it, especially after people like Eddie, it’s a lot of pressure. So it’s an exciting thing for me.
“I think I embody what it is to be a Philly fighter. My Instagram name is thephillyfighter. So I try to embody the rawness of it, the intensity, the leave it all in the cage or in the ring mentality, not turning down opportunities or opponents, believe in yourself, and keep fighting until the end.”
