What a year it's been for Keith Richardson. 

In January, he burst onto the BKFC scene with a "Fight of the Year" candidate victory over Justin Scoggins. Richardson followed up his epic debut with back-to-back, first-round stoppages over Cody Jenkins and Derek Perez at BKFC 42 and BKFC 48, respectively. In his fourth fight of the year, Richardson dethroned BKFC World Bantamweight Champion Reggie Barnett Jr. with a second-round stoppage at BKFC 52 in his home state of South Carolina.

“It definitely happened a lot quicker than expected,” the Rock Hill, SC fighter says with a chuckle when asked about his sensational rookie year with BKFC.

“The pacing of how quickly my career has progressed is a bit faster than we thought it would be, but at the same time, I’m always pushing for the top and wanting to fight as much as possible.”

Richardson had a long MMA career before transitioning to bare knuckle fighting. His 22-11 record includes 15 finishes. The Bellator vet won his past four MMA bouts – all by stoppage – but he felt his MMA career had stalled.

Enter BKFC, the world’s fastest growing combat sports promotion.

Richardson wasn’t sure what to expect when he signed on the dotted line with BKFC. He’s always been a well-rounded fighter, but he’s known primarily for his ability on the ground. He started off just rolling with the punches with BKFC, and it’s quickly led him to the top of the organization. 

“Everybody says I’ve found the sport that I was meant to do, it just took me a while to finally find it,” he says with a laugh.

It’s hard to imagine 2024 being any bigger for Richardson than 2023 has been, but he wants to enter rarified air in the new year.

“There are some potential marque fights that could happen down the road – there’s always that possibility with BKFC – but right now my priority is to defend what I’ve got,” Richardson says. “A lot of guys want to take this belt away from me, but I’m not the kind of guy you want to take something from.”