Packing a punch: How Australia's Bec Rawlings became the 'Queen of Bare-Knuckle Boxing'After two rounds of brutal punishment, Bec Rawlings's opponent stayed rooted to her chair.
Blood had been spilt by both women. Though the fight had been clean. Just a boxing match like countless others.
Except for one important detail. When Rawlings's hand was raised by the referee, her swollen knuckles were exposed.
Neither woman had been wearing gloves.
In June this year Brisbane-based Rawlings featured in the first fully legal bare-knuckle boxing event staged in the US for over a century, in Wyoming.
Some 2,000 fans turned up to watch. Thousands more bought pay TV subscriptions. This weekend she will defend her unofficial title of 'Queen of Bare-Knuckle', this time in Mississippi.
Her debut victory, and the manner in which she fought, has given her a share of top billing. It is not hard to see why. She wears a kaleidoscope of tattoos across her ripped body. A half-shaved head and piercings give her the look of an outlaw.
Fighting is what defines her. It is how she provides, as a caring single mother, for her two young boys. It is where she finds her release. And she's good at it.
"Whether it's bare-knuckle, gloved boxing or MMA, my passion and life is fighting," she says."I look at people who do crossfit and think why on earth would you want to do that? I do parts of that ... so I am better at punching people in the face."
In truth Rawlings has been fighting all her life.
"On the wrong path" as a teenager, the organised sport of mixed martial arts, and motherhood at a young age, gave her a purpose when she needed one.
Following the birth of her oldest son Zake in 2008, the then 19-year-old Rawlings found herself unfit and overweight. She joined a gym, kickboxing to get in shape.
"I just loved it straight away," she says.
"[And] when I found out you could fight and get paid for it, I was like, 'Sign me up'. Back then there was [only] two other girls in the country who were fighting professionally. One of them agreed to fight me. But [before it could take place] I fell pregnant with my second son, Enson."
Rawlings's debut professional fight took place less than 10 months after she gave birth.
"That fight camp was the hardest I've ever gotten ready for," she recalls, "because I was breast feeding and raising kids and surviving horrible circumstances at home, and training twice a day. All while being told I would never do it, that he had more talent in his pinkie finger than I ever will. Training for that fight was my out, that was my thing."
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