Event: BKB 48: Night of Four Kings
Date: November 22, 2025
Location: Charles F. Dodge Center, Pembroke Pines, Florida
Broadcast: VICE, TalkSPORT, Telemundo Deportes Ahora

Tomorrow night at BKB 48, two undefeated women’s bare-knuckle fighters will step into the trigon in what shapes up to be a fascinating tactical battle. Angel “Da Killa” Keihl meets Katherine “Kunoichi” Connor in a matchup that pits grit against grace, pressure against precision.

The Fighters

Angel Keihl: The Florida Brawler

Record: Undefeated in bare-knuckle (1-0 BKB)
Physical Stats: 5’5″ / 149 lbs
Background: Gainesville, Florida / MMA veteran with 3-3 amateur record

Keihl represents the old-school Florida combat sports scene: tough, durable, and battle-tested. She made her bare-knuckle debut with a unanimous decision victory at BYB 29, showcasing the grinding pressure style that defines her approach. Her MMA background provides a diverse striking foundation, but her transition to the specific demands of bare-knuckle boxing is still developing.

Katherine Connor: The Technical Striker

Record: 1-0 in bare-knuckle (29-3 in Muay Thai/Kickboxing)
Physical Stats: 5’9″ / 148 lbs (fighting out of 5’10” per some sources)
Background: Stockton, California (originally Atlanta, Georgia) / Multiple-time world and national champion in Muay Thai and kickboxing

Connor brings elite-level striking credentials to bare-knuckle boxing. With three TBA World Championships and accolades from WAKO, IKF, and WKA, she’s proven her technical excellence across multiple striking disciplines. Her fight name “Kunoichi” (a female ninja) reflects her methodical, precise approach. Connor split-decisioned Miranda Barber in her bare-knuckle debut at BKB 44 in Denver, showing she can adapt her extensive kickboxing experience to the unique demands of fighting without gloves.

The Tale of the Tape: Height and Reach Advantage

The 4-inch height disparity is significant in bare-knuckle boxing. Connor’s longer frame gives her a natural advantage in controlling distance and landing cleaner shots from range. In a sport where cuts end fights and positioning matters immensely, that extra reach could be the difference-maker.

However, Keihl’s compact frame isn’t without advantages. Shorter fighters often generate devastating power from close range and can more easily work the body – a crucial target in bare-knuckle where accumulating damage to the midsection can break an opponent’s will.

Tactical Breakdown: Where This Fight Will Be Won

Keihl’s Path to Victory

The Problems:

Keihl has developed a troubling habit of leaning back to use her height defensively – but at 5’5″, this is a dangerous game against a natural 5’9″ fighter. Leaning back opens massive opportunities for overhand rights, and Connor’s Muay Thai background means she’s drilled that punch thousands of times.

Even more concerning, Keihl tends to float her jab rather than snap it with purpose. A floating jab is an invitation – it signals incoming offense without threatening the opponent, essentially telling your adversary exactly when to counter. Against a technical counter-striker like Connor, this becomes a glaring liability. Every time Keihl floats that jab, she’s leaving her chin exposed to the exact overhand right that her leaning habit makes even more devastating.

Additionally, Keihl’s conditioning has shown cracks in longer fights. If Connor can keep this competitive through the middle rounds, Keihl may fade when she needs her gas tank most.

The Opportunities:

Despite these technical flaws, Keihl possesses genuine heart and durability. If she can pressure Connor early, close distance, and force exchanges in the pocket, her aggression could overwhelm the more technical striker. Keihl needs to make this an ugly, grinding fight – work the body, smother Connor’s range advantage, and turn it into a test of wills.

Connor’s Path to Victory

The Blueprint:

This fight should be Katherine Connor’s to lose. Her game plan writes itself: establish the jab early and keep it there all night long. That 4-inch height advantage means her jab controls the center of the trigon and sets up everything else.

Connor’s Muay Thai pedigree emphasizes body work, but her combinations have shown a tendency to restrict to hooks rather than mixing in uppercuts. Against a shorter fighter who ducks and pressures, those uppercuts are essential tools. When Keihl inevitably tries to close distance and crouch low to get inside, Connor needs perfectly timed uppercuts to punish that aggression.

Her movement is excellent, showing the footwork refinement of a world-class kickboxer, but she’s still adjusting to bare-knuckle’s unique tempo. The sport’s shorter rounds and more aggressive pacing differ significantly from Muay Thai’s measured rhythm. In her debut against Barber, Connor looked momentarily uncomfortable during sustained flurries—those chaotic close-range exchanges where bare-knuckle fighters throw with reckless abandon.

The Tyson Fury Lean:

Connor possesses a remarkable leaning ability reminiscent of heavyweight champion Tyson Fury—the capacity to bend at the waist and make opponents miss by millimeters while maintaining offensive capabilities. This is a high-level defensive skill that’s difficult to execute consistently, but when it works, it’s demoralizing for aggressive fighters who load up on power shots only to hit air.

The Critical Instruction:

Don’t abandon your game. Connor must resist the temptation to meet Keihl in the pocket and engage in phone booth wars. Start every combination with that jab. Use it to measure distance, set up power shots, and keep Keihl at the end of that reach advantage where she’s most uncomfortable. The moment Connor forgets her range and tries to brawl, she plays into Keihl’s strengths.

Her conditioning is reportedly excellent, which means she can maintain a high pace and high output for five rounds. If Connor fights smart, she should be able to pile up points and potentially score a late stoppage as Keihl’s gas tank empties.

The Verdict: Why Connor Should Win

This matchup favors Katherine Connor in almost every technical aspect. She’s longer, more technical, better conditioned, and brings world-championship level striking experience. Her split-decision debut showed she can adapt to bare-knuckle boxing’s demands while maintaining her technical foundations.

Keihl’s flaws: the backward lean, the floating jab, the questionable conditioning – are exactly the kind of mistakes that elite technical strikers exploit. Every time Keihl leans back, Connor’s overhand right should be landing. Every time Keihl floats that jab, Connor should be countering with the uppercut as Keihl ducks to close distance.

Prediction: Katherine Connor by decision or late TKO

Connor’s path to victory is clear: dominate at range with the jab, punish Keihl’s defensive flaws with clean power shots, work systematic body damage, and let superior conditioning carry her into the championship rounds. If she executes this game plan and doesn’t get drawn into unnecessary wars in the pocket, she should emerge with her undefeated record intact.

The X-Factor: Heart and Adjustments

That said, combat sports don’t happen in a laboratory. Keihl possesses something that can’t be taught: genuine fighting spirit. She’s the type of fighter who encourages exhausted opponents to keep fighting mid-bout (a story from her MMA days reveals this extraordinary character). If Connor has an off night, if she abandons her technical approach, if she gets caught early – Keihl has the chin and determination to capitalize.

But barring those contingencies, this should be Katherine Connor’s fight to win. Her technical superiority, physical advantages, and tactical blueprint are simply too significant.

Context: BKB 48 and Women’s Bare-Knuckle Boxing

This bout takes place on one of the most stacked bare-knuckle cards in history, featuring four world title fights including Gustavo Trujillo defending his heavyweight crown and LT “Smash” Nelson seeking revenge against Barrie Jones. The women’s division in bare-knuckle boxing continues to grow, and matchups like Keihl vs. Connor showcase the depth of talent entering the sport.

Women’s bare-knuckle boxing officially launched in modern sanctioned competition in 2018, and the sport has produced compelling action and star power ever since. Fights like this one – technical strikers versus pressure fighters, experience versus hunger, are exactly what grows the sport.

Final Thoughts

Tomorrow night at the Charles F. Dodge Center, Katherine Connor has the opportunity to make a statement. A dominant victory over a game opponent like Angel Keihl would position her as a serious contender in BKB’s women’s division.

For Keihl, this is a chance to prove that technical credentials don’t always translate to bare-knuckle success. If her toughness, pressure, and aggression can overcome Connor’s advantages, it would be a signature win that announces her arrival as a legitimate force.

But the smart money, and the technical analysis, points to Connor. Her jab, her range, her movement, and her conditioning should be the story of the fight. If Katherine Connor sticks to her game, doesn’t chase the brawl, and fights with the discipline that made her a world champion in Muay Thai, she walks out of Florida 2-0 and rising.

Pick: Katherine Connor wins by decision

BKB 48: Night of Four Kings airs live November 22, 2025, from Pembroke Pines, Florida on VICE, TalkSPORT, and Telemundo Deportes Ahora.