Ava Knight admits love-hate with grappling, hopes to showcase heavy hands at Bellator 238

LOS ANGELES – Ava Knight freely admits she’s more comfortable inside the boxing ring than the Bellator cage, but she says the skills she brings from boxing will stand her in good stead in her MMA adventure.

Knight (1-0 MMA, 0-0 BMMA), a former IBF flyweight boxing champion, will make the second appearance of her professional MMA career at Bellator 238 from The Forum against Emilee King, and “The Lady of Boxing” says she plans on making sure she isn’t dragged too far out of her comfort zone on Saturday night.

“The biggest lesson is I don’t ever want to be on the ground again,” Knight told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “Not that I ever felt like I was in a place where I want to tap out or anything. But at the same time, I just want to be where I’m comfortable.”

To some, Knight’s admission that she doesn’t want to be on the mat could be taken as weakness, but she doesn’t see it that way. Instead, she used her desire to keep the fight standing to underpin her work in the gym as she prepared for her latest test.

“I practice not being somewhere I would hope that everything that I trained for is going to work, just like everyone else does,” she explained. “That worst-case scenario … my camp is based around what happens if that does happen. But at the same time, where I am comfortable is where I should be fighting my fight.

“All of my camps here on out are all going to be grappling. It’s the only thing I don’t know how to do, and it’s the only thing I should learn. But at the end of the day, it’s always (a good idea to) keep your strengths strong. At the end of the day, that’s what I want. That’s what I want to do, but we’re always going to be ready for whatever someone has to throw at me.”

Knight, who has a 19-2-5 record as a pro boxer, won her professional MMA debut at Bellator 228 via third-round TKO, and has stayed busy since. She returned to her original sport of boxing and picked up a unanimous decision victory to extend her current unbeaten streak to nine in a row inside the squared circle. Now she’s set to return to the cage in a bid to kick off another undefeated streak with victory against King (3-3 MMA, 0-0 BMMA).

“I looked her up, and she just looks like a really happy girl that’s an athlete and really wants a fight,” Knight said. “I think she’s coming off three wins – I didn’t watch the videos. Whatever she has coming, my coaches have prepared me for it. I don’t like to psych myself out. I’m doing me, and I’m going to do that the best that I can, and she’s going to the best that she’s got to take me out, and I’m just going to be there.”

Unsurprisingly, Knight’s preferred route to victory involves her hands: “Of course! I punch hard, that’s what I want to do. I want to stick to that.” But she’s working hard on building up the newer aspects of the game, and said that she has a love-hate relationship with grappling that she hopes will help her progress in her second sport.

“I’m really happy with MMA, and I actually really like it,” she said. “And I really like what comes with it, and that’s just the respect in the sport, respect for women in the sport. Boxing is still a little behind. We’re doing a whole lot better, but we’re still way behind. So I’m really happy to keep progressing in this sport.

“I’m having fun grappling. I hate doing it, but I’m actually having fun learning something new. So it’s a good thing for me, and I’m happy to do MMA, at least for the next year, and just focus on that.”

As for the fight itself, Knight admits she’ll step into the cage with an experience disadvantage, but said she’s ready to do what she does best and find a home for her educated hands as she bids to capture her second straight victory as a mixed martial artist.

“Obviously she’ll be better at MMA than I am, but at the same time I’m here to win,” Knight said. “I don’t care how it happens. I could submit her – people don’t know what I’ve been doing – but at the same time I’m thinking I want to knock her out, I want to get a name for myself, I want to be a girl in this sport with heavy hands. And I’m proud to hold that title if I can get it.”