LT Nelson and Rico Franco have the utmost mutual respect for each other since their first fight, but that doesn’t mean that the bare-knuckle champions wouldn’t throw down again someday.

The two initially fought inside the BKB Mighty Trigon, back when the promotion was called BYB Extreme, during their May 2022 offering. It was at BYB 10: Biloxi Brawl that Nelson would halt Franco in the second stanza of their bare-knuckle showdown to notch the victory.

Referencing ‘Smash’ Nelson predicting that Franco would again beat Connor Tierney in their rematch at BKFC 90 for interim gold at 165 pounds, and addressing that the two warriors [Nelson and ‘Bon Bon’ Franco] seem like they have great admiration for each other, Rico Franco said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, definitely. It’s all business end of the day. There’s no; people can take things personal and stuff. There’s a lot of history with me and Connor Tierney. But I mean, he is getting smashed and it’s all mindset going into there. But I’ve got no hate towards anybody. It’s just business for me. But there’s some really good people in this game, good fighters. Dustin Pague, he’s a proper fighter. He gave me a message after the fight being really respectful.”

“So, it’s going to be a pleasure… One day, you never know. I’d love to rematch him [LT Nelson]. So, I know we’re on different promotions, but that would be my goal, to fight LT one day because he’s on a winning streak. Great fighter. I’d love to do it on BKFC to be honest. Not in that triangle, but who knows what the future holds.”

LT Nelson responds to Rico Franco

On the other end of this binary, when giving his own thoughts on Rico Franco’s championship-winning effort over Connor Tierney at BKFC 90, which the two-division BKB champ predicted would happen in the pre-fight build, LT Nelson stated [via Bare Knuckle Bowker],

“Yeah, I love that, man. Shout out to Rico [Franco], bro. He’s a badass and helped me. Helped me perform and be better myself, too. So, I love that as well. It’s good to; I always like seeing people that I beat and performed against do well because that cementss what I do even more in my head. Showing me that I am one of the best.”