Bare knuckle fighting isn’t for everybody, but it’s definitely for Kat Paprocki.
The fan-favorite MMA fighter recently jumped out to a 1-0 start in her BKFC career with a fourth-round stoppage victory over Sydney Smith at BKFC 67 at the sold-out Denver Coliseum in her hometown of Denver, CO.
“I love the creativity that you’re allowed to use with your striking, grabbing, clinching and throwing with BKFC. You can be very creative in a bare knuckle fight, which is really interesting to me,” she says.
“It’s just so raw, man. It truly is just you and your opponent in there, throwing hands. I find the energy of the crowd is different than at MMA fights. It was so cool.”
Paprocki has six professional bouts on her MMA record, not including her run on The Ultimate Fighter in 2022. She believes bare knuckle fighting is a better fit for her than MMA.
“At times we forgo being happy in pursuit of a goal, and I haven’t been happy for a long time in my MMA career, but I had an absolute blast in my first BKFC fight,” she says, smiling.
“My training camp was amazing, and I had so much fun on fight night. I’m hooked.”
All that being said, Paprocki isn’t with BKFC just to have fun.
“I’m coming for the top,” she says. “I want to work my way up through the rankings, and eventually I want my shot at the belt.”
