Following an exit from the UFC in April of 2022, lightweight Kevin Croom has found success in a new combat sport, picking up back-to-back wins for Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships since joining the promotion last November.
After getting a second round TKO in his BKFC debut last November over Sean Wilson, Croom followed it up with an even more impressive stoppage by getting a 71-second TKO of Chevvy Bridges at BKFC: Knuckle Mania 3 on February 17.
“I don’t think it could have gone any better for me,” Croom told MMAWeekly.com. “I knew (Bridges) was tough, so I wanted to keep him guessing on the ranges I was fighting at, so I came in quickly trying to clinch up and got him expecting that, then I let the 2-3 (combo) fly and the night was over.
“I’m a fighter; I’m trying to finish every fight. Sometimes you get in the middle of it and that’s not going to happen, but I’m always looking for the finish. So far these two fights have gone pretty well for me.”
Having shifted his focus from MMA training to striking for BKFC, Croom feels like he’s been able to let loose more in his fights not having to worry about the ground game.
“To be honest I don’t know if I’ve noticed a ton of difference (in my striking), but when you only have to focus on two things I can sit down on my punches more because I don’t have to worry about somebody taking me down,” said Croom.
“There’s all these things that are taken off your mind and kind of makes the whole thing a little easier. It allows you to throw with a little more abandon. I’m sure I’ve sharpened things up since I started doing this but I haven’t noticed too much a difference in it other than I can strike better when I’m not worried about somebody taking me down.”
While Croom hasn’t shut the door on MMA completely, he sees his path forward going through BKFC for the foreseeable future.
“I would like to fight BKFC most of the time. I’m not opposed to taking an MMA fight, but I just feel like BKFC is my game,” Croom said. “I feel like I’m really good at it, so I’m trying to fight four more times (for BKFC) this year – that would be great.”
Kevin Croom: ‘BKFC is my game’