“I’m closing out my career,” former WBO featherweight titlist Heather Hardy tells me over the phone. “I really wanted to make the most of my last year of fighting.” Hardy, who has been at the forefront of women’s boxing for a decade now, is certainly finding new worlds for herself to conquer. For this May the Brooklynite will be making her debut with the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) . Her opponent? None other than undefeated flyweight champion Christine Ferea. “I reached out to Christine,” Hardy continues. “She’s always been really supportive throughout my career.” Ferea is also about as big a BKFC challenge as Hardy is apt to find. Not that she minds.

“I definitely picked up the toughest one of the bunch for a reason,” Hardy admits. “I’m looking for where the money fights are.” As Hardy says: “When it comes to fighting, it comes to earning.” And being successful has allowed Hardy to make a full time career out of being a boxer. As far as Hardy is concerned, it’s as simple as that. “I didn’t start boxing because I love the sport,” she states openly. “I started boxing to get my daughter out of the old neighborhood.” With her daughter now away at college, the outspoken Hardy has a few more goals she wants to accomplish, one of which is succeeding in the tough as nails world of bare knuckle boxing.

“There’s a lot of differences,” says Hardy, comparing mainstream boxing with bare knuckle boxing. “When it comes to injuries (in bare knuckle boxing) you’re more susceptible to skin breaking,” she says. “It’s more injuries that could be detrimental to a win or a loss.” To Hardy, bare knuckle combat is an all out brawl, while “boxing is a gentleman’s sport.” Still, when asked outright what her favorite sport to compete in is, Hardy leaves no doubt. “Boxing,” she says, “because my father helped me see the beauty in it.”

Hardy also appreciates the general attitude to be found in boxing, as opposed to bare knuckle boxing, or even MMA (which she has also competed professionally in). “I can say in my history participating as a coach and a fighter…boxing is much more about mom and dad running the show.  Fuck around and find out. They don’t play games.” One of the most interesting things about Hardy is her openness. She doesn’t doesn’t hold back. Perhaps most importantly, though, the veteran fighter is a realist.

“Am I going to fall in love with this sport?” she asks rhetorically of participating in BKFC. “Probably not.” I ask if she intends to return to MMA. “I am training,” she says. “I’m back at MMA.” And then of course there’s boxing. Does Hardy, who was last seen in the ring in August making a failed attempt to remove Amanda Serrano from her undisputed championship, still long for ring success? “WBC green belt,” she states simply. “The WBC at the end of the year.” And when her fighting days are over? “I’ve had thoughts,” Hardy says. “Do I open a gym, do I become a manager? I don’t see myself falling out of one particular area.”

While this may truly be Hardy’s final year of professional fighting, it’s hard to imagine her being completely removed from the fight game. She’s simply too much a part of the fabric of it at this point.