On June 3, 2023, Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) President David Feldman revealed that Conor McGregor's special appearance at BKFC 26 recorded a shocking 734,000 illegal streams.

Feldman was speaking to MMA Junkie about the event, which took place on May 14, 2023, at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa, Florida. McGregor was in attendance to watch his friend, Artem Lobov, fight. During the event, McGregor made a surprise appearance and entered the ring to confront Lobov's opponent, Chris Van Heerden.

The incident was widely reported and generated a lot of interest in BKFC. However, Feldman said that the promotion was disappointed to learn that so many people had illegally streamed the event.

"We projected to do almost double that, though, and actually, I just got a report in today that says they found 734,000 illegal streams from that event," Feldman said. "So I'm not even pissed off. That's 734,000 people that watched this event, on top of the people that bought it."

Feldman said that the promotion is working to combat illegal streaming and that they are confident that they will be able to reduce the number of illegal streams in the future.

"We're working with our partners to try to combat that," Feldman said. "We're going to be doing some things in the future to try to combat that. But I think it's just a testament to the fact that people are interested in our product."

The illegal streams of BKFC 26 are a reminder of the challenges that combat sports promotions face in the age of the internet. However, Feldman is confident that BKFC will be able to overcome these challenges and continue to grow the sport of bare-knuckle boxing.