Even though Bec Rawlings recently took a dip into the sport of bare knuckle fighting, the former UFC fighter still intents on continuing her mixed martial arts career.
Rawlings spoke to Fightful on her future in MMA and said her plan is to continue fighting in the sport. The opportunity to fight in a historic bare knuckle event in Wyoming back on June 2 was too good to pass up for Rawlings.
“I’m still going to be competing in MMA. It’s just something that I wanted to test myself in and see if I can do both so why the hell not? They contacted me and offered me a fight and it sounded really cool. It’s exciting to test myself in something like boxing or with striking since I’ve done MMA. I’ve always wanted to try myself in boxing or something like that. I feel I have the most skills towards that just with MMA gloves. Just thought I would give it a go. It’s exciting to me, doing something to freshen my mind, I guess,” Rawlings said.
Having fought in the UFC from 2014 to 2018, Rawlings dropped her last four fights, some of which came by decision. Rawlings believed some of her losses were dubious and that she should have won those fights. The 29-year-old mixed martial artist learned to work on getting the finish in the ring and not leave the fight up to the judges.
“I feel like I’ve dropped close decisions, some of them I thought I won. I think the judges needs to step their game up because they are letting a lot of people down with their shitty decisions. It just gets in the way [during fights] because you never know what they want. I changed my gameplan for my last fight and they still weren’t happy. It’s just really annoying so I’ve definitely taken away from that I need to go out there and get the finish because you cannot trust the judges’ opinion,” Rawlings said.
Although Rawlings wants to return to mixed martial arts, she would not be against competing in bare knuckle fighting again. Rawlings last fought at UFC 223 back in April when she lost to Ashlee Evans-Smith by unanimous decision.
“Absolutely [I would do this again]. I’m excited to see how this event goes, but I’m always down to fight. I’m always looking to stay active and get more fights under my belt so I would not be opposed to doing more fights with them, especially if they’re successful. But I’ll still be fighting in MMA and it’s just a matter of finding a balance between both,” Rawlings said.
Rawlings made her Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships debut at the BKFC: The Beginning event on June 2 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, defeating pro boxer Alma Garcia by second-round TKO.
