Following an exit from the UFC in April of 2022, light-weight Kevin Croom has discovered success in a brand new fight sport, selecting up back-to-back wins for Naked Knuckle Preventing 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 assume it may have gone any higher for me,” Croom advised MMAWeekly.com. “I knew (Bridges) was powerful, so I needed to maintain him guessing on the ranges I used to be preventing at, so I got here in rapidly making an attempt to clinch up and acquired him anticipating that, then I let the 2-3 (combo) fly and the night time was over.
“I’m a fighter; I’m making an attempt to complete each struggle. Typically you get in the course of it and that’s not going to occur, however I’m all the time searching for the end. Thus far these two fights have gone fairly nicely for me.”
Having shifted his focus from MMA coaching to placing for BKFC, Croom seems like he’s been capable of let free extra in his fights not having to fret in regards to the floor sport.
“To be sincere I don’t know if I’ve observed a ton of distinction (in my placing), however whenever you solely must concentrate on two issues I can sit down on my punches extra as a result of I don’t have to fret about any person taking me down,” mentioned Croom.
“There’s all this stuff which might be taken off your thoughts and type of makes the entire thing somewhat simpler. It lets you 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 frightened about any person 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 struggle BKFC more often than not. I’m not against taking an MMA struggle, however I simply really feel like BKFC is my sport,” Croom mentioned. “I really feel like I’m actually good at it, so I’m making an attempt to struggle 4 extra occasions (for BKFC) this 12 months – that may be nice.”
