Inspired by a true story, Bare Knuckles stars Jeanette Roxborough as a desperate single mother who enters an underground Mixed Martial Arts competition in order to provide for her young daughter. Samantha Rogers (Roxborough) is a cocktail waitress who only holds onto her job out of sheer desperation. One night, while breaking up a bar brawl between a pair of belligerent women, Samantha makes a big impression on struggling fight promoter Sonny Cool (Martin Kove), who convinces her to test her fighting skills in the ring. Before long, the frustrated cocktail waitress is earning big money in the world of illegal, bare-knuckle female fighting. Although her better judgment tells her that she should make a clean break from this sordid underworld as quickly as possible, her motherly instincts convince her that the only way to ensure a bright future for her daughter is to fight with everything she's got until she can't throw another punch.
