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Although Bec Rawlings exited the UFC on a four-fight losing skid, and even though that’s more leeway than many fighters get, she still thinks her release came a tad too early.

Why? Mostly it’s an issue of weight. While her last two UFC bouts came at flyweight, her preferred division, her body was still adjusting from the years of tough cuts down to 115 pounds.

“I was cutting dramatic weight to get down to 115 (pounds), and it just wrecked my performances,” Rawlings (7-8 MMA, 2-5 UFC) told MMAjunkie. “I’m only just now being able to put on the weight and get healthy. I gave myself a thyroid disorder trying to get down to strawweight. Now I’m feeling fit, I’m feeling strong, and I’m feeling fast. So they kind of let me go a little prematurely, I think. But one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”

On Saturday in Cheyenne, Wyo., Rawlings did her best to rebrand herself as just that sort of treasure for Bare Knuckle FC. In the promotion’s debut event, Rawlings battered pro boxer Alma Garcia to earn a TKO stoppage victory prior to the start of the third round.

Rawlings said she spent much of her training camp trying to toughen her knuckles and strengthen her wrists in preparation for the bare-knuckle action, and in the end it may have paid off. While Garcia seemed to injure her hands in the bout, Rawlings emerged with nothing more than swollen, slightly bruised fists.

“She was reluctant to throw (her hands), and I saw her kind of wince,” Rawlings said. “Especially when I hit her and cut her, I saw her grab her face, and that’s when I jumped on her. But I knew she was hitting my guard really hard, and I know what it feels like to hit someone’s guard hard. I know that (expletive) hurts, so I knew it hurt her.”

As for what comes next, Rawlings said MMA is still her “first love,” and she’s hopeful for a return to the all-female Invicta FC MMA promotion, and perhaps eventually the UFC.

“But this was amazing,” Rawlings said of the debut Bare Knuckle FC pay-per-view event. “The feeling of being out there tonight, I’m definitely going to fight bare-knuckle again.”

For more on the UFC’s upcoming schedule, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.