Franco Tenaglia He was 18 years old and already practiced martial arts, but he was tired of doing “jobs” for the Burzaco barra brava. The area was complicated and poverty flooded everything. He wanted to be a fighter in the UFC, he knew how to fight, he did it well, he practiced boxing, kickboxing and karate, but in the suburbs he was destined to die young. This is how he left for the old continent, with very little money in his pocket and full of hopes.
First it was New Zealand; There he could specialize in MMA, but he couldn’t enter, he didn’t have a visa or papers in order. At the airport he decided to leave for Spain, where he tried his luck. Hunger hit him more than in Argentina, he could not settle. He went to the United Kingdom and lived on the streets, he began to fight, first to survive and then for money.
One day he met two British people in a hostel, they had a problem with a Colombian over an old debt and he defended them. By chance, destiny or just luck, in gratitude, the British asked him to take care of them on a tour of Spain. The father of one of them was a bare-knuckle boxing promoter, something that would change his life.
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The Albanian mafia
It wasn’t long until someone from the Albanian mafia saw him fighting and caught it. He was recognized in Cardiff, Wales. He was the fighter who never lost, and above all the one who was not afraid of anything. Clandestine fights were the big business of betting, and the Latin “pibito” could possibly survive. There were no rules, much less protection; He fought on a cement floor without gloves and anything was worth it.
Franco was light in build and very young, they made him fight against more experienced giants. He beat everyone, he knocked them down as if they were dolls and it didn’t take long for him to be the “King of the Street.”
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The young mafia sensation became one of the favorites of the criminal organization, so in addition to making him fight more and more often, they also used him as a soldier for different tasks, such as collecting debts and taking care of crop fields.
“The King of the Street” fought in containers located in the mountains of Eastern European countries, such as Poland or Romania. They were battles without any limits, where death occurred often and was hidden in the darkness of the illegal betting business.
In those places the event called “King of the streets” is held, which has more than a million subscribers on YouTube. The fighters arrive blindfolded so as not to know the location of the place. They are a few attendees with a lot of power and money who tend to get drunk and high while betting.
In an interview with a Spanish media, Tenaglia said that they hold “extreme right” style contests against “extreme left”, or “Nazis” against “anti-Nazis”. He reported that “there are masked guards with weapons of war such as AK-47s and in case of disturbances during the event, these same guards are authorized to kill.”
One fight was very difficult: he won it, but ended up with a broken jaw and a broken arm. The recovery time was going to be long, no one helped him anymore, because if he didn’t fight he was of no use. He began selling drugs on the street to support himself.
The prison and the change of mentality
Franco’s closeness to the world of crime exposed him, and he was also recognized. Living with the adrenaline and vertigo with which the Argentine did, was going to lead him to two paths: he would end up in jail or die.
After miraculously surviving a stab wound and a van that purposely ran over him to eliminate him, he ended up imprisoned in Frankfurt, Germany. That was the forced brake on a life that seemed like an ultra-violent video game.
He had cellmates who helped him cope with his stay, he was a tough guy so no one bothered him, but confinement changed the way he saw things and put him in front of the goal for which he went to Europe. He wanted to be an elite champion.
Bare Knucke Fighting Championship (Boxeo sin guantes)
Franco managed to join and be a respected fighter in the UFC, but everything took a turn when a promoter saw something unique in Tenaglia: he was a talented and fearless street fighter. Something in which in this new modality, the Bare Knuckle, where one of its sponsors is Conor McGregor, was highly valued and sought after.
Franco Tenaglia became the sensation of this type of combat, for many brutal. Defenders of the KBFC claim that bare-knuckle beatings cause fewer long-term consequences. They claim that the gloves only take care of the hands and lengthen the fights, but they increase the number of internal blows to the boxers’ heads.
The “King of the streets” who became world champion
Franco Tenaglia in April of this year became the European champion representing Spain, because he has Spanish and Italian nationality. The biggest challenge was missing, the one he had waited for all his life and wanted to achieve his goal of being the best. “The King of the Street” wanted to be world champion and this Saturday, October 12 in Marbella, Spain, he had his chance in a blood war.
The rival was the dangerous American Tony “El Loco” Soto, who promised to return the BKFC title to the United States. Franco, as always, was not afraid, but he knew that there were not many opportunities and he had to leave everything. He did it.
In the first round he knocked down Soto in a flurry of blows, but in the second he broke his hand, the pain was unbearable. At that moment he remembered the needs of his primary school teacher mother who did everything possible to ensure that they eat, his friends from Burzaco who died in the street, the days he survived in Wales with an egg and a little tuna.
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He fought and hit everything he could, he also received countless blows, perhaps almost the same amount that life gave him. The fortitude and courage of the fighters moved everyone. Franco Tenaglia’s triumph was recognized and the Argentine became the new world champion.
It was not in Las Vegas, and he did it in a sport that was questioned and prohibited in many places in the world, but Franco Tenaglia does not know about laws, he does not know about limits and he only knows that his fists always saved his life and on this occasion, with 28 years, 10 years after he left Burzaco, they took him to the top of the planet.
Report by Martín Bonansea.
