Sweat and dreams at the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships tryouts

They came to the gym in Tampa, FL, with their dreams tucked in their gym bags, a dozen men weaned on a thousand years of The Ultimate Fighter and convinced that this could be their ticket to stardom. A dozen men who had come to strut their pugilistic stuff before a handful of media, two UFC vets, and the promoter of the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships (BKFC) - the sixth installment of which would play out at the nearby fairgrounds in a few days.

Most were locals, or at least local enough.