00:00You've been in so many wars, Taylor, in your career.
00:02You have to feel good to get a second-round knockout.
00:05You know, I've been fighting number one contenders and champions
00:09for the past three, four years now.
00:13You know, I don't want to say I needed...
00:15I deserved a moment to shine, and I got that, and I'm so thankful.
00:20And I kind of wanted to put a stamp on it so I could say,
00:23this is why I'm fighting the contenders.
00:25This is why I'm fighting the champs of the organization.
00:29And I want to get back in there with Britton, and, you know,
00:33I just had to take Sidney Smith out.
00:35There was no other option. There was no other way.
00:38And, you know, every punch that you threw had bad intentions.
00:42You didn't waste punches.
00:43You had to be very happy with your performance from a technical standpoint.
00:48Oh, it was awesome.
00:50Everything I did, I worked on in camp,
00:52and it didn't matter who was in front of me.
00:53You know, I had a last-minute replacement.
00:55It didn't matter who was in front of me, and that's what was going to happen.
00:58Whoever was going in there was getting finished.
01:00And I just wanted to throw with bad intentions, like you said,
01:04to be extremely violent and have power behind my punches,
01:07and I did everything that I worked on.
01:09I think some casuals will think, you know, they hear bare knuckles,
01:14and they just think, all right, it's like an all-out brawl and stuff.
01:16But the more I've learned about this sport and talking to fighters,
01:19you can't recklessly just throw punches, right, Taylor?
01:22Because that's how you're going to hurt your hands.
01:24Like, if you're going to land and you're going to hurt your hand,
01:26you better make it count.
01:27And you don't want to hit elbows.
01:29You don't want to hit bones, man.
01:30There's a lot of ways you can hurt yourself if you're just throwing recklessly.
01:34How much have you learned along the way with your experience now?
01:39Like, how much, you know, sort of like the Rod Stewart,
01:41if I knew now what I knew then type of thing?
01:43What do you know now that maybe you didn't even know like a year ago or two?
01:47Do you feel like you're improving as far as seeing things in this format of fighting?
01:54100%.
01:54And you can't waste punches and bare knuckles.
01:57Like you said, you don't want to throw just to throw because you're hitting forehead.
02:01And you have to be very calculated in where you're landing.
02:03And hitting the forehead, that's the strongest bone in our face.
02:07And that thing is dangerous.
02:10So, actually, my hands right now still really hurt from fighting.
02:14And you just got to be really calculated with what you do.
02:17The face, it heals up.
02:18It looks superficial.
02:19It's superficial and looks crazy for a little bit.
02:22But it's the hands.
02:23So, you can't throw everything with 100% power.
02:27You have to really take the time to figure out the knuckle placement.
02:31Where are you going to put that on their face so it doesn't hurt you?
02:34And there's a lot that goes into it.
02:36Like you said, people think we're just going in there and swinging for the fences.
02:39And I think you have to be very, very technically skilled and bare knuckle to do it.
02:45It's not boxing.
02:45It's not MMA.
02:47It's not Muay Thai.
02:47It is its own thing.
02:49And it's something you learn really quickly after your first one.
02:52That, oh, this isn't what I thought it was going to be.
02:54This is different.
02:55And you got thrown in the fire, like literally and figuratively.
02:59Like your first fight was like, you know, your craziest fight.
03:02You went viral after, obviously.
03:05And you had to be thinking, or people around you had to be thinking,
03:08no way, Taylor.
03:09This is the rest of your life.
03:10Because like after your first fight, this is the way.
03:13This is the way that it's going to be.
03:14But like you said, blood can be superficial.
03:18This is, you know, the thing that fascinates me about BKFC the most, Taylor, is the speed.
03:22Right?
03:23MMA fighters can take a second to breathe.
03:25They could, you know, take somebody down.
03:27They can clinch against the cage a bit.
03:30But there's really not a lot of time to like gather yourself in a BKFC ring, is there?
03:36It's just freaking relentless.
03:39Yeah.
03:40And I think that's an issue.
03:41Like when boxers come over, they fight such long rounds.
03:45They're fighting these long rounds for long periods of time.
03:48So kind of when they make that transition, it's like, oh, I have to fight two minute rounds.
03:53Like you don't have that warming up period.
03:55Boxers, they warm up as they go, and they get better as the rounds go on.
03:58But in bare knuckle, you don't get that.
04:00You don't get a feeling out period.
04:02It's nonstop action.
04:04And that's what I love about it, because I'm 150% at all times.
04:09I'm one speed, and that's why I fit so well in this sport.
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