Marisol Ruelas will collide with Shyanna Bintiff at BKFC 79: Gogo vs. Lane on August 2nd and Ruelas appeared on Bare Knuckle Bowker to touch on several subjects ahead of her first fighting foray into the world of gloveless combat. Prior to Saturday night's contest, Ruelas has had prior experiences in MMA, combat jiu jitsu, Power Slap, and Team Combat League.
Upon being asked when bare knuckle fighting got on her radar to compete under that ruleset and the road leading up to this BKFC 79 contract being signed, Ruelas said,
"I competed in MMA starting off for a very long time. When I got the offer for Power Slap, I think a few of the girls that were offered to me were on bare knuckle and I remember telling my manager like oh, this must be a sign. But I had a lot of people against it just because I'm still very young and I do a lot of other things. But I don't know."
"I feel like an itch started growing in me and like it was actually very crazy. Like randomly I got a message about doing bare knuckle and if I was interested. So I talked to Tyler a little bit more and that's about it. He just kind of gave me the option of whether or not I wanted to do it and he would look into an opponent and a match and all of the things. I just decided to take it [laughs]."
BKFC 79, Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, and how Ruelas has "an upper hand"
The 28-year old bare knuckle debutant is honoured to be part of this BKFC Sturgis card as BKFC 79 takes place at the nucleus of the iconic Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. While Ruelas ended up hitting the required 145 pound mark, her opponent Bintiff missed weight by over seven pounds heading into their contracted bout at featherweight.
When asked for her thoughts on her BKFC 79 opponent who is also making their Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut but has some prior BKB bouts under her belt, Ruelas stated,
"I mean I didn't look too much into it. I think I've seen like one of her fights. My coaches do all of the research and they do focus on what I should work on for the fight. I did see that she is going to be a little bit taller. Probably a little bit heavier which is; I have no problem with it [laughs]. As far as her background with bare knuckle or fighting in that promotion, I feel like at least I got to see how she fights. On the other hand, she has not. She doesn't know how I move, how I aim."
"It's very different like with boxing or MMA or any sport like that. So I guess it was kind of an upper hand being able to see her last fight. I believe it was like in April or something. I'm not too worried about the experience. I've fought girls who had a lot less experience than me and did a lot better than me. I've fought girls with more experience than me and I did better. So as far as that, I'm not too worried about it. But again, it's a fight and I know that I have to be ready for whatever comes to me."
