Following an exit from the UFC in April of 2022, light-weight Kevin Croom has discovered success in a brand new fight sport, choosing up back-to-back wins for Naked Knuckle Combating Championships since becoming a member of the promotion final November.
After getting a second spherical TKO in his BKFC debut final November over Sean Wilson, Croom adopted it up with an much more spectacular stoppage by getting a 71-second TKO of Chevvy Bridges at BKFC: Knuckle Mania 3 on February 17.
“I don’t suppose it might have gone any higher for me,” Croom instructed MMAWeekly.com. “I knew (Bridges) was robust, so I wished to maintain him guessing on the ranges I used to be combating at, so I got here in rapidly making an attempt to clinch up and obtained him anticipating that, then I let the 2-3 (combo) fly and the evening was over.
“I’m a fighter; I’m making an attempt to complete each combat. Typically you get in the midst of it and that’s not going to occur, however I’m at all times on the lookout for the end. To this point these two fights have gone fairly nicely for me.”
Having shifted his focus from MMA coaching to hanging for BKFC, Croom seems like he’s been in a position to let free extra in his fights not having to fret concerning the floor recreation.
“To be trustworthy I don’t know if I’ve observed a ton of distinction (in my hanging), however whenever you solely need to deal with two issues I can sit down on my punches extra as a result of I don’t have to fret about any individual taking me down,” stated Croom.
“There’s all these items which can be taken off your thoughts and form of makes the entire thing somewhat simpler. It means that you can throw with somewhat extra abandon. I’m positive I’ve sharpened issues up since I began doing this however I haven’t observed an excessive amount of a distinction in it aside from I can strike higher once I’m not fearful about any individual taking me down.”
Whereas Croom hasn’t shut the door on MMA fully, he sees his path ahead going by way of BKFC for the foreseeable future.
“I want to combat BKFC more often than not. I’m not against taking an MMA combat, however I simply really feel like BKFC is my recreation,” Croom stated. “I really feel like I’m actually good at it, so I’m making an attempt to combat 4 extra occasions (for BKFC) this 12 months – that might be nice.”
