Britain Hart delivers punishing performance to beat Taylor Starling in BKFC 63 main event

With a massive gash over her left eye, Britain Hart refused to back down and she dished out a whole lot of punishment to defend her strawweight title in the BKFC 63 main event.

Despite blood flowing down her face and a valiant effort from challenger Taylor Starling, it was Hart who connected with the better punches and kept the pressure on for all five rounds. While Starling had her moments, Hart connected with the harder punches and the better impact to secure the decision with the judges scoring the fight 48-47, 49-46 and 48-47 as she retains her belt.

“I feel f*cking bad ass,” Hart said after her win. “I told you I’m the baddest female to do it. I’m here to show no matter what we can still smile and look good doing it.”

There was no feeling out process in this title fight with Starling charging forward to start the fight and Hart meeting her with a series of vicious counter punches. Hart seemingly had complete disregard for Starling’s power as she just marched forward in every exchange as she unloaded a flurry of punches in succession.

Starling was swinging wild but Hart was connecting with much cleaner punches including a combination that rattled the challenger just before the end of the opening round. Even with a strong start, Hart still went to her corner with a cut over her left eye.

Hart continued to apply forward pressure with Starling circling away to avoid the biggest punches coming from the strawweight champion. When Starling finally tagged Hart with a big right hand, she ate one of her own and seemed like she got the worst of it.

As the cut on her eye really started dripping blood and Starling started to connect with a good jab, Hart got even more determined to draw her into a brawl. With seconds ticking away in the third round, Hart charged ahead with a barrage of punches and several slipped through Starling’s defense as she got backed up against the ropes.

While the stats showed Starling landing more punches, she still appeared to be absorbing more punishment. That said, Starling kept coming at Hart and she connected with some of her best shots in the fourth round as the champion slowed down slightly.

Even when she was getting the worse of the exchanges during any given round, Hart’s ability to make the most of the closing seconds allowed her to inflict a lot of damage on Starling and her face was showing it. That really was the story of the fight with Starling staying ahead early and then Hart delivering the bigger shots late.

The victory serves as Hart’s third defense of her title but there’s no rest for the weary with Tai Emery fresh off her vicious knockout win in a bare-knuckle fight in RIZIN as the next contender in line.

“I’m here,” Hart said when asked about Emery. “I’ve been here. I’ve fought them all from UFC, pretend faces, ‘Dancing with the Stars,’ Australian b*tches so bring it all on.”