Hatice
Ozyurt believes her striking ability will give her the edge
when she faces Jackie “The
Hybrid” Cataline at BKB 61 on Nov. 14 in London.
Ozyurt is set to meet the former wrestler in a bare-knuckle boxing
contest and expects Cataline to try to close the distance and work
in the clinch. However, the Turkish-Dutch fighter is confident she
can dictate the action with her hands and believes the matchup
could produce an early knockout.
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Beyond the fight, Ozyurt takes pride in representing her Turkish
heritage on the international stage while using her experiences as
a fighter and prison senior manager to inspire others.
Hatice Ozyurt is confident about her striking ahead of Jackie
Cataline bout
“I leave it in God’s hands. But one thing I know for sure is that
it’s not going to be how she planned it,” Ozyurt said in an
interview recorded Oct. 30. “Yesterday I had an interview where
Jackie made it clear that she wants to clinch with me. She can try,
but it’s like I said, I’m not going to hug her in the fight. I want
to change levels with the fists.” Ozyurt hopes her experience will allow her to finish the contest
before the scheduled five rounds are completed.
“It’s professional boxing without gloves so I hope it’s going to be
the fight of the night. Hopefully with my boxing skills and my
experience, it will be a KO maybe in the first or second round.
It’s not going to last all five rounds. I hope not.”
Ozyurt acknowledged Cataline’s wrestling and grappling background
but insisted she is comfortable dealing with that challenge.
“She has a background as a wrestler, a grappler. And everyone knows
me. I’m a professional fighter who’s had almost 70 fights to my
name. My special background is striking. So, it’s very interesting
to fight against a grappler, a wrestler. I hope it’s not going to
be a fight where she will put me to the ground. And if she takes me
to the ground, then we can do BKB on the ground. It’s no problem
for me at all. But I think the complete fighter for BKB — that’s
me. Of course, I respect her as a fighter, as a female. But because
of my background as a striker, that ground is my playground.”
While Ozyurt expects to have the advantage in striking, she also
recognizes Cataline’s accomplishments and views the contest as an
opportunity to showcase her skills at the highest level of
bare-knuckle boxing.
“I was born and raised in the Netherlands and my background’s
culture is Turkish. I represent Turkey with pride, as the first
Turkish female fighter in the Netherlands,” Ozyurt said. “It’s very
exciting for me to be there fighting at the highest level of
bare-knuckle. Jackie, of course, is also a legend in her
background. I’m very grateful and very excited for this fight
between us.”
Hatice Ozyurt hopes to inspire others through fighting and
prison work
Outside the ring, Ozyurt works as a senior manager at a prison in
the Netherlands, a role she said she has held for nearly 17 years.
She believes her experiences in combat sports and her professional
life have given her an opportunity to encourage people facing
difficult circumstances.
“Yeah, I want to be an inspiration to them. I’m a senior manager in
the toughest prison in the Netherlands. We don’t deal with guys who
stole candy from a store. We work with murderers and rapists. But
also with children who are damaged by their loved ones, who never
had a chance to stand up for themselves,” Ozyurt said.
The Turkish-Dutch fighter emphasized that her achievements have
come through years of hard work and that she hopes her journey can
serve as an example to those she encounters in her profession.
“I’ve done this work for almost 17 years now. With my personality
and who I am as a woman, who I am as a fighter, I always give them
the message of where I came from. I didn’t get things handed to me
on a golden plate. I worked hard in my position as a fighter and as
a female, in this society.”
Ozyurt said her approach to working with incarcerated individuals
centers on respect, understanding and helping them build better
futures.
“As senior manager in the prison, I always get respect from the
prisoners. They love to hear what I say because I talk from my
heart. Some children didn’t even have a chance to develop
themselves and I want to guide them when they come into society.
Some things are not for granted. Some things you have to work for.
And I hope that when I help them, that they take me as an
example.”
For Ozyurt, the people she works with are more than their
circumstances or the offenses that brought them into the prison
system. She hopes to provide them with the encouragement and
support they may have lacked earlier in life.
“I’m very grateful that there are prisoners… I don’t want to call
them prisoners. They are human beings in my eyes. They are children
who are damaged. I want them to get a chance. I want them to feel
that there is a person who wants to hear them, wants to help them,
and want to create solutions for them, to become a better person in
life.”