by Bethaney Phillips
Her stage name is The Accountant. Braids in and shorts on, Kayla Williams will soon make her bare fist fighting debut in Denver, Sept. 21st.
After a delay, the fight has been rescheduled. Previously, she’s fought in gloves. This time, they will quite literally come off. The only thing between her hands and the opponent’s skin are sweat and taped wrists, a thin, barely-there alternative to her traditional boxing gloves.
Williams, who graduated from CCCHS in 2011, said from the hair to toughening her mindset, dressing the part helps her gear up.
“Once the braids are in, it’s on. This whole other side comes out,” she said. “It’s a persona, the way I look at it, you have to be performers. Somebody’s paying me to put on a show tonight, so we just have to be exciting in some way.” After a “Britney moment” involving an undercut, she contracted a hair guy to complete her fight braids. This is just one of the steps she takes to prepare herself – mentally and physically – for a real-life fight.
From carefully choosing a weigh-in outfit, to acting out as The Accountant – a nod to her real-life job that usually goes over heads – Williams is deep into the fighting scene.
“That’s part of the drama of it,” she said. “We really are actors and we’re here to make you think something.”
Getting Started
Now a principle at her accounting firm near Wichita, Williams said she was 26 and working a desk job when she found martial arts.
“I had gained a lot of weight sitting at a desk,” she said. At her peak of 260, she started with cardio kickboxing classes, which soon turned into a hobby.
“It was just bunching and kicking the air, I had never sparred before,” she said of the sport. It was all bags and mats at that point. Until her coach took an interest in her and asked if she wanted to try some sparring with his girlfriend. The two began circling when the latter punched Williams in the face.
“It was just off, we went after each other after that,” she said. “I just really liked it.” Then her coach recommended she find a gym where she could learn to fight.
Not long after, then weighing 190, Williams landed her first fight, and she was hooked.
But then she moved from Topeka to Wichita, got pregnant with her second daughter, and had multiple surgeries – two on her shoulders and one on a knee. While she still wanted to fight, Williams took some time off to get settled. She found a new gym, 316 Marshall Arts, and began kickboxing fights.
“It’s been awesome I love it. Really it’s just been kind of fun, but I swear it’s just therapy,” she said. “I’m not an aggressive person but I feel pretty stress-free because I get to get it all out in the gym.”
Fighting On
In 2023, Williams participated in the first-ever amateur bare-knuckle fight at the Legends in Kansas City. She won and caught some attention doing so. It landed her a contract with BYB – one of the two main companies that handle professional fighting. The main takeaway with BYB she said, is that the fighting area is a triangle.
“There’s nothing but corners. So there’s nowhere to go, you just stand in the middle and fight,” she said.
The contact will be her first professional and will follow at least two more. And if she doesn’t like the bare-fist aspect, she can go back to gloves.
“I really never even had a dream of going pro. I have my career and I love my job, but the opportunity that presented itself was too good to pass up,” she said. “Plus I think I have a great chance. This girl is 0-2 [in professionals] and I think I can smoke her.”
(Williams’ own record is 5-0 in kickboxing and 1-0 in bare-knuckle boxing, both as an amateur.)
A single mother of two, Williams called her schedule more than busy, as she performs “fight camp.”
“I turn it on and I put myself through it,” she said. Getting up at 6 while her daughters are still asleep, she gets in her first workout. Then she works on a flexible schedule, often going for a run or to the gym during lunch. In the evening, the girls head to the gym with her. Then, because clients are often overseas, she will work into the night to catch up and meet Philippines’ workers online.
“The fight world has just been really incorporated into our lives,” she said. Adding that they attended a fight in Florida, then went to Disney World. “We really just made it a family affair, which I love.” Adding that her oldest, Kamber, 12, has taken jijitsu classes in the past, and her youngest, Kenlee, 4, asks to practice “pow pow classes,” where she’ll punch into mitts.
And while they have gone to watch her fights in the past, they won’t attend this one.
“I’m a little worried about the bare knuckles,” she said. “Even if I hate it, I will continue to fight [with gloves]. But I felt like I have to try this. When is the opportunity going to come again?”
Fight camp also consists of workouts like hot yoga, then daily calisthenics of 200 pushups, planks, strength training, three-mile runs, and boxing. In addition, she’s eating right and avoiding alcohol, she said of her eight-week prep course.
Now fighting at 145 pounds, Williams competes in the lightweight division.
“I don’t think I’ll ever see myself not going to the gym every day,” she said. “And if I’m in the gym I might as well fight.”
Williams will fight Casie Dees of Oklahoma on Sept. 21 at the Stockyards Event Center in Denver, Co. The event will be live-streamed. Learn how to watch here: https://www.bybextreme.com/watch#tunein
