Boxing: Tickets, get your tickets (if you can)!

Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Or was, or will be.

If you’re planning to attend Friday’s BKFC Fight Night event at the Albuquerque Convention Center’s Kiva Auditorium, time is precious. Don’t wait.

The main event features Jackson-Wink fighter Bekhzod Usmonov (1-1 BKFC, 11-5 MMA) against Keith Richardson of Rockville, South Carolina (5-1 BKFC). Veteran Albuquerque fighter Donald Sanchez (3-1 BKFC,) is scheduled to face Harrison Aiken (3-3) of Atlanta in the co-main event.

The undercard features a plethora of Albuquerque-area fighters, including Eric Dodson, Felipe Chavez, Derek Perez and William Albrecht.

But if it’s the April 19 Legacy Boxing Promotions card at the Embassy Suites you’re interested in, you’ve got time. How much time, though, isn’t clear. Sales are going well, Legacy’s Aaron Perez said: “We shouldn’t have an issue selling it out.”

Or if it’s the April 12 Signature Punch Promotions boxing card at the Pit that tickles your fancy, time is on your side. Tickets were yet not on sale as of Thursday for the card, headlined by a crossover bout between MMA fighters Rashad Evans and Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, with Albuquerque fighters Brian Mendoza (22-4, 16 KOs) and Josh Torres (27-7-2, 15 KOs) also scheduled in separate bouts.

As for Friday’s BKFC card, for reasons unknown — a Journal interview with BKFC President David Feldman fell through — the bare-knuckle fighting promotion has chosen to stage its sixth event in the Albuquerque area at a venue less than one-third the capacity of Tingley Coliseum, where the BKFC has staged three events in the past.

The Kiva Auditorium’s listed capacity is 2,300. The BKFC’s first two events at Tingley in February and August 2023 drew announced crowds of 6,792 and 7,483. Each was announced at the time as a BKFC attendance record.

Attendance at the Jan. 30, 2024 BKFC event at Tingley was not announced. It appeared to be a smaller turnout than those of the two previous events, but clearly larger than can be accommodated at the Kiva Auditorium.

As of Thursday at 7 p.m, it appeared approximately 300 tickets were remaining, priced at $60 and up (mostly up).

And, oh, by the way: That 7,483 attendance figure at Tingley is no longer a BKFC record. A BKFC KnuckleMania event staged on Jan. 30 in Philadelphia — the company’s headquarters city — drew an announced crowd of 17,762.

Meanwhile, New Mexico Athletic Commission chairman Ed Manzanares, who’s also a University of New Mexico senior associate athletics director, told the Journal on Wednesday that UNM athletic ticketing and Signature Punch have yet to arrive at pricing for the April 12 event. Signature Punch had announced at a news conference at the Pit on Feb. 20 that ticket sales would begin on the following Monday.

“We (UNM and Signature Punch) need to get together and hammer that out,” Manzanares said.

All that’s OK with Legacy Promotions’ Perez, whose April 19 event was approved by the athletic commission before the Signature Punch event was approved to take place a week earlier.

Tickets for the Legacy Promotions card have been available, scaled at $45 to $85, since Feb. 10.

Capacity for boxing at the Embassy Suites ballroom, Perez said, is about 1,200.

The card features Abraham Perez (10-0, five KOs), Aaron’s son, in his first bout since his near-drowning in the family swimming pool in July. It also features Albuquerque’s Fidel Maldonado Jr. (27-5-1, 20 KOs) in his first bout since February 2020.

Years ago, the New Mexico Athletic Commission had a policy — not a statute — that would have prohibited the approval of an event scheduled to be staged within two weeks before a previously approved event. That policy no longer exists and probably was unenforceable.

Perez said he wished no ill for the Signature Punch event and added he’d probably attend it if he could. But the proximity in time between the two events, he said, isn’t good for either promoter.