Sydney “Sundance” Smith, an MMA and bare knuckles fighter and Augusta County native, will fight in a featured bout on the BKFC 48 card on Aug. 11.
Smith, who won her debut at BKFC 42 in May, will face UK-based fighter Melanie Shah.
The BKFC 48 fight will be broadcast live from Albuquerque, N.M., on pay-per-view.
Smith, 31, is looking to get her second win in four months as she continues her push for a shot at the BKFC world strawweight title, which is held by Britain Smith, a bare knuckles fighter based out of Danville, Va.
The fight with Shah, who hasn’t competed since a Nov. 26, 2022, five-round decision win over UK-based fighter Mathilda Wilson, “is definitely going to be a banger,” said Smith, who won her bare knuckles debut on May 12 in Greenville, S.C., in a five-round decision over Andy Nguyen.
“I know this girl is going to fight me, like, she’s going to stand and trade with me, so I’m really excited about this one,” said Smith, who felt her fight with Nguyen came across to fans as being less than entertaining because of Nguyen’s fighting style, which featured her doing her best to avoid mixing it up with Smith, a brawler with a background in muay thai.
Smith is currently the #4 contender for the BKFC strawweight world title, so a win in Albuquerque would almost certainly put her in a position for a world title fight at some point in the next year.
The potential for a title fight has her motivated, but first things first.
It’s three weeks to the next fight night, and she has to keep her focus in training camp to be able to put herself in the best possible position.
“When I get in a fight camp, I get into it, like, I’m doing two-a-days right now,” said Smith, who trains at Gottardi Boxing in Fishersville and the MMA Institute in Bridgewater.. “You know, like, I just, I work really hard, but you know, I have a system, and I know, like, that it works. So yeah, I mean, I turn it up, and I love it, man.”
She leaves it to her coaches to take care of the scouting and put her through the paces to get ready for her next opponent.
“I don’t care what you do, and I don’t care what your style is. You should care about what my style is, like, you gotta fight me, too,” Smith said. “I just try and put a lot more focus on, like, my capabilities and, like, the hard work that I put in and, you know, like, all the training that I do. I just try and rely on that and focus on that.
“The second that you give your opponent too much rental space in your head, you’re kind of like putting yourself at a deficit before you have the fight,” Smith said. “I learned that the hard way early on in my amateur career. So, I just, I really don’t care what they’re doing to train, I don’t care who they’re with, or whatever, like, you know, I just stay focused on me. And it seems to work pretty well for me.”
She knows enough to know that Shah is going to come hard.
“I really expect you know, like, blood,” Smith said. “Yeah, just, like, people are gonna be cut open, and you might lose teeth or something, like, this is gonna be a knockdown, drag out, and you know, it could be over quickly, I have no idea, but you know, either way, it’s gonna a really good fight. So yeah, definitely tune in and watch this one, because it’s going to be a barnburner man. I’m so excited for it.”
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Chris Graham
