Amanda Ribas down for bareknuckle fight to prove point to her Father

With UFC alumni competing in BKFC, BKB, Valor and World Lethwei Championship, bareknuckle fight sports are clearly on the rise.

In a recent interview with SCMP MMA, Amanda Ribas said she might be open to taking the gloves off at some point in her career to prove a point to her Father, who is also a lifelong Martial Artist.

‘For me this is like the beginning. My Dad did this fight. I saw in my house some pictures with him fighting all ‘bloody blood.’ So for me it’s different. It’s a different game. So there are old techniques and new techniques so for me it’s different. I don’t know if I can do it one day because I need to shut my Dad up because sometimes when we’re training he says, ‘you guys today, you use protection for the knee, for the head in my time I did without gloves, I kicked the tree’ so maybe in the future I’ll do it just to shut up my Dad!’

https://twitter.com/btsportufc/status/1283608874486988801

The 27-year-old is a rising star in the UFC and finds herself ranked 12th in the strawweight division. The Brazilian has won all four of her fights since arriving in the promotion back in 2019. Her last bout was a stunning submission victory over Paige VanZant at UFC 251. Ribas won with an armbar with VanZant announced her departure for BKFC soon afterwards.

‘In my mind I was thinking I was actually surprised that she took that choice as she went to train at American Top Team and they don’t really have that at ATT it’s more boxing so I was quite surprised she took that route. For me, she came to ATT she was still fighting MMA because there the wrestling is so good but when she signed that event without gloves and boxing in my mind I thought, ‘ah look at this girl! She wants to show to the world that she can do it. She can do a big fight and she’s not scared to get punches in her face or to cut her eye so this is good I think she will be good because she has a really big heart.’

Ribas has been strongly linked with a fight against 7th-ranked Carla Esparza. The American is the former champion and that fight has been targeted to take place at UFC 256. If Ribas wins, she will launch herself into the top of the division.

With things going so well for her in MMA, would you like to see her test herself in Bare-knuckle Boxing or Lethwei one day?