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\nAspen Ladd, Bellator Paris Credit: PFL<\/p>\n
Aspen Ladd is embarking on her BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing debut this weekend but already has multiple belts in her focus. Following her impressive BKFC outing, which saw her debut in gloveless combat, Ladd prepares to fight a former BKB welterweight title challenger, Bianca Daimoni. An intriguing super lightweight bout bolsters BKB 58, which transpires on August 29 and emanates from Miami, Florida.<\/p>\n
Delving into the timeline from last November, which saw her Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut to where she is now preparing for the BKB Mighty Trigon on Saturday, Ladd said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker<\/em>],<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a whole lot of being told you\u2019re going to fight, you have a fight, or we\u2019re trying to get you a fight, and then nothing. I\u2019m not okay with waiting for six, seven, eight months and fighting maybe once a year. That\u2019s not cool. I want to build a record. I want to; well in bare knuckle. I\u2019ve done other things obviously, but I enjoyed what I did.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI enjoy the sport of bare knuckle, but you can\u2019t low or learn grow anything in fighting once a year, right? So I was like this is not working for me. So we ventured out, had discussions with other people that were incredibly professional. Started having that conversation and yeah ended up with BKB because I liked everything about them.\u201d<\/p>\n Being one of the more well-traveled prize fighters in the game having fought for UFC, Bellator, PFL, and BKFC to name a few. Touching on being a multi-sport combat athlete and how any possible options that could generate for her, Ladd stated<\/p>\n \u201cSo, the cool thing is with BKB, I can still compete in other combat sports if I choose to, but right now Bare Knuckle is my focus, right? So, they\u2019re my home for that. If I choose to go another route, it has to make sense time-wise with what I\u2019m doing with BKB. Yeah, obviously I\u2019m MMA. MMA is my first love and still it\u2019s something that I\u2019m good at and I enjoy. So, could I return to MMA at some point? Yes. But BKB will still be my home for bare knuckle fighting.\u201d<\/p>\n Touching upon how exciting it is to actually take on some of the independent contractor benefits of being a fighter in an embodied way whereby BKB is supporting that, Ladd explained<\/p>\n \u201cNo, one of the; I mean there is many factors of why I chose to go with them, but one of the things I saw leading up to it was how they supported their BKB athletes in their boxing fights, right? Like they\u2019re fully supportive. There\u2019s no anger, no issues. It\u2019s like, okay, they don\u2019t just say you have an opportunity to, they\u2019re actually they\u2019re real about it, right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo that made me feel a lot better because obviously I want to do multiple things. Even though this is my focus at the moment and it will continue to be, my entire goal with this organization is get the belt, and then there\u2019s multiple weight classes I could fight in, right. So I am on a quest for belts at BKB.\u201d<\/p>\n As far as eyeing multi-division championship goals in BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing, Ladd said<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s very possible. So where I\u2019m at right now, the 140 lb weight class is perfect for me, right? But there\u2019s two other options here, but they would have to make sense. So, and I love; that\u2019s another reason, the boxing weight classes. My entire life, I would have been a 140. For me, 135 is very, very difficult, but doable with the right circumstances. 147 is easy. 140 is perfect. So, depending on where the opportunities take us, we\u2019ll see.\u201d<\/p>\n Ladd is already attracting big attention as evidenced by BKB champ Jamie Driver posting a smiley face emoji on a Tim Wheaton Instagram post regarding her signing to BKB. Succinctly responding to that comment, Ladd stated<\/p>\n \u201cOh, I certainly should be.\u201d<\/p>\n The California native is clearly ardently focused on her bare-knuckle path, and when asked if there was a certain revelatory piece that\u2019s inspiring her broader path in the world of gloveless combat, Ladd noted that<\/p>\n \u201cIt did. So there\u2019s always some trepidation when you take on anything new, right? Especially bare-knuckle. Coming over from MMA, you think about, it\u2019s like, \u201cOh, there\u2019s no protection. My face is going to get broken. I\u2019m going to break my hands every time I fight. It\u2019s going to be; There\u2019s going to be a lot of physical toll. We\u2019re going to take a lot of time off in between.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut the reality of that, at least for me, it\u2019s not for everybody, right? I came out of it fine. My hands felt better than they do with; because the MMA gloves like they\u2019re weird. Like your hands are pulled in odd directions. The solidness of being, well and we also trained very, very specifically to hit right, to get stronger, to make sure that you don\u2019t whack something you shouldn\u2019t, let\u2019s say, for months and months and months on end.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo the precision. So you focused more on precision and less protection, but getting in there and actually experience it, the bare bones quality of the combat. I loved it. Like I like getting right to the point when you fight, right? I don\u2019t; It\u2019s like there\u2019s no time to be boring with bare-knuckle. Obviously with BKFC, their ring\u2019s even a little bit bigger than the Trigon. I haven\u2019t been in a real one yet, but we\u2019ve like mapped it out in the gym.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cLike there there is absolutely no breathing room. It\u2019s going to be go and you\u2019re on each other, which I like. Like I like that part of fighting, right? So, yes, it was kind of a revelation for me. It\u2019s like, okay, this is not exactly what I thought going in. I really like this. I want to keep doing this. So, that\u2019s been my goal since the first fight. It\u2019s just getting drug out as far as when that fight would be.\u201d<\/p>\n The compact nature of the Trigon seems to fit the 31-year-old\u2019s fighting style, and when addressing how this seems like a great dynamic for exciting the viewers this weekend, Ladd said<\/p>\n \u201cMost certainly. Yeah. No. So, as soon as I saw it, I was like, \u201cOh, this is this is kind of exciting.\u201d So I remember we put it all; because you do that too for MMA. Whatever sport you\u2019re fighting in or whatever size ring you\u2019re fighting in for your sparring, you map it out. It\u2019s like, \u201cOh, this is this is tiny. This is nice.\u201d\u201d<\/p>\n Aspen Ladd brings the approach of a methodical, calculated fighter to all athletics, and that includes bare-knuckle conditioning work and things of that persuasion. Expounding a bit upon some of the specifically tailored work for this literal bare-bones sport, Ladd explained that<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. I mean, there\u2019s so much you don\u2019t really; I mean, everybody shares their training clips, right? But there\u2019s a lot you don\u2019t talk about and you just do it, right. But like the behind the scenes things and I don\u2019t know how other people are doing it for Bare Knuckle. I know how old-timers did it because my former, only former coach cuz he retired. He had done bare knuckle in his youth. So, we did a lot of things that he had done preparing when he was fighting. but yeah, so I don\u2019t know how everybody\u2019s doing it. I just know that there are certain steps we\u2019ve been taking to do it right basically.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked if she learned any veteran bare-knuckle fighting tricks from her retired coach, Ladd stated<\/p>\n \u201cEverything\u2019s a little bit different and back then there was; rules were kind of a suggestion as opposed to a fixated thing. So yeah, he knows all kinds of things.\u201d<\/p>\n In a scenario where your goal is gold, fighting a former title challenger in the bare-knuckle world does serve that desired trajectory well. When asked for her thoughts on what Bianca Daimoni brings to the table as an opponent here in Miami, Ladd said [via Bare Knuckle Bowker<\/em>],<\/p>\n \u201cYeah. No, she\u2019ll be a tough opponent. They\u2019re not; that\u2019s not a walkthrough whatsoever. she has experience. She looks solid. she\u2019s obviously fought for BKB a couple times now, and one of them was against the title holder, but she\u2019s got MMA experience, too. So, she should be a little bit more aware of certain things there. But yeah, she\u2019s going to be a tough and beyond worthy opponent to get this show basically this party started with. But yeah, no, she\u2019s going to be tough.\u201d<\/p>\n This fight is massive in a localized way, but when asked about the sentiment about fighting on such a stacked card, Ladd stated<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I was thrilled and that was the other thing. So BKB is, for lack of a better way to put it, on their s**t. So from the time that you\u2019re talking, they answer every question, right? But from the time you sign with them to when you have a fight booked to and you could obviously ask for certain things, right? originally after we had done the signing, they wanted me a little bit further out, but it\u2019s like cuz I\u2019ve been in camp forever. It\u2019s like I would really like to fight, if it\u2019s okay, a little bit sooner than that. So I ended up getting the Miami card, which I\u2019m so grateful for. then within two days, they had an opponent booked. Like just how concise they are with everything. is like, \u201cThis is fantastic.\u201d then they sent over her and was like, \u201cOkay, this is a tough chick. That\u2019s great.\u201d Like just it\u2019s been smooth. It\u2019s been a very smooth transition.\u201d<\/p>\nBKB 58<\/h2>\n
BKB Miami<\/h2>\n
BKB Bare Knuckle Boxing<\/h2>\n
Aspen Ladd says BKB is \u201con their s**t\u201d ahead of promotinal debut effort<\/h2>\n
BKB<\/h2>\n