Charisa Sigala Eyes “Bloody Battle” vs Tai Emery at Super RIZIN 3

By
Dylan Bowker
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Charisa Sigala
Photo credit to Phil Lambert/ BKFC

Charisa Sigala will clash with former LFL player and viral sensation Tai Emery in a bare-knuckle boxing bout at Super RIZIN 3 on July 28.

Sigala will be returning after over a year on the sidelines. This following a gruesome leg injury suffered at KnuckleMania III. While she was fully healed in August of last year and stayed busy with academics, it was just a matter of working out when Sigala could return to the BKFC ring.

Sigala will enter the ring for her seventh bare-knuckle boxing bout and will be continuing to make history. Charisa Sigala was previously part of BKFC’s inaugural strawweight title fight and in this looming bout will take part in the first-ever women’s bare knuckle boxing bout in Japan. She already had her passport from a targeted Paige VanZant fight in London years ago and is getting to put it to use for this outing in the land of the rising sun.

Charisa Sigala

The pair of PVZ bout cancellations are still something Sigala does not have a lot of insights into. She had to change her weight for the VanZant contract and it would have been the heaviest Sigala ever fought at. It would have been to the scale of not having to drop weight at all and just train. Sigala stated how she felt she was so much of a threat to VanZant that she had to turn to Power Slap to actually get a win.

She questioned PVZ’s grit to return to BKFC and felt VanZant didn’t do well in gloved boxing against Elle Brooke. Sigala briefly mentioned the former UFC combatant doing well in Power Slap. But also felt she should have been disqualified for her head turning and Sigala intimated that she wasn’t because she’s “Dana’s baby.” Charisa Sigala said she’s right here waiting if VanZant ever comes back to knuckle up and toe the line if the BKFC bout offer versus PVZ ever materializes again.

Super RIZIN 3

Emery also provides a high octane bare knuckle style as Sigala has become known for. When asked about the general skill set of her opponent, Sigala noted that “so what I love is that we both have fought in different countries. So she’s from the Thailand version. She’s fought a lot of Thai Fighters. Their style is different and she has a little bit of mix in there. I know she has the one MMA fight that she did. But other than that, she’s just done bare knuckle. So she’s got a little bit of a mix. She still has a little bit of that ‘Thai fights as a Thai fighter’ sort of style.”
“But she’s very forward aggression the whole time and I love that. So that will always bring an exciting fight. But the one thing I do love about the US bare-knuckle is that since there [are] so many different styles out here, we get a lot of different looks you know. In Thailand, it’s a lot of Muay Thai fighters. Everyone in Thailand is a lot of Muay Thai fighters. So it’s like Muay Thai fighting Muay Thai.”

BKFC in RIZIN

Charisa Sigala continued, “It’s not like you get the boxer versus the Muay Thai. Even in MMA, I fought kickboxers. I fought people who come from jiu-jitsu backgrounds. I’m a black belt in jiu-jitsu, that was my start in MMA and starting combat sports. They were like okay, you’re a purple belt when you started. Alright, you’re good, we’ll just teach you a little bit of striking. Now I’ve been able to actually hone in on those skills.”
“So I think this is going to be a fun and interesting fight because you’re going to get to see someone go up against something that she hasn’t seen. Because Tai really has not been against anybody other than those Thai Fighters. So they’re used to doing the same thing. You can tell from the girls that she fought, they sort of fight similarly in that style.”
“So she gets a little bit of a different look. But she gets somebody who’s ready to throw down just as much as her and is ready to go. We both want that bloody battle [laughs]. That’s what I love.”

Charisa Sigala vs Tai Emery

Getting to share a spot on a card with Manny Pacquiao appears to be something special for Sigala, who has an aunt who married into the family that is Filipino that screamed at the TV over Pac Man during the Christmas holidays. Sigala was a little girl when she saw her aunt’s fervor as he fought arch-rival Marquez.

Gloved boxing, bare-knuckle, and MMA are all featured at Super RIZIN 3. Sigala went to the recent BKFC Pechanga card with her son as it’s close to where she resides and was greeted with a raucous crowd there- but she realizes this RIZIN card will be seven times greater in terms of the cumulative amount of people that are expected to be present.

BKFC

The fans in Japan can expect high output, no quit, and a fervent pace from two proven action fighters among the women in BKFC per Sigala. While she is known as ‘BKFC Sweetheart’, Sigala is one of the most proven action intensive fighters in the company with a seemingly bottomless reserve of guts and tenacity.

She has had notable clashes against Britain Hart in that aforementioned first ever 115 pound title fight for the company (which she took on three days notice) and Sigala’s classic clash at KnuckleMania I vs Taylor Starling, and felt the Starling fight really vaulted BKFC to a higher level of notoriety and put them on the map in a bigger way than the promotion had been previously. Sigala also trained with Tatiana Suarez in her early MMA days and Sigala is now game to fight whoever as well as whenever considering the adversities/ fighting force that she dealt with in Suarez from those training sessions.

Starling and Hart are fighting for the latter’s belt soon and Sigala would love to get back into that title mix for a rematch with either combatant. While she is fighting at a 120 pound catchweight here vs Emery, Sigala wants to go back down to 115 pounds for that sophomore strawweight title bid down the line.

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