Photo by Phil Lambert for Bare Knuckle FC
BKFC President on Paige VanZant: “Bare Knuckle Career Likely Over With Next Loss”
BKFC President Dave Feldman is pulling no punches (pun intended) with Paige VanZant in her next fight on August 20th. She takes on former UFC fighter Charisa Sigala on BKFC 27 in the UK.
After signing a big contract and losing her first two fights with BKFC, Feldman is going to have to do the unthinkable and cut VanZant should she loose her third straight fight with the promotion.
In an interview with GiveMeSport, Feldman said the following about Paige VanZant and her next fight:
“If Paige loses, her bare knuckle career is definitely at an end.”
He goes on to say that VanZant needs to hear his message loud and clear but he’s not set on keeping her around if she can’t win.
“I mean, she did an interview and said there was no pressure on this fight.” He continues, “So, you know, if she feels there’s no pressure, then maybe, you know, maybe she’s very confident.”
Despite her confidence, Feldman knows that there’s a quitting point for everything and he’s nearly ready to be out of the PVZ business.
“But, you know, I can’t keep saying after every fight, we’ll see how she does.”
He says it’s going to have to take some convincing to keep her in promotion, and by convincing I mean winning. “And that’s why if she doesn’t do well in this fight, if she doesn’t come out victorious, or at least look very, very good, then she’s probably at the end of her bare-knuckle career.”
The dollars have to add up on Paige VanZant
After losing and fighting out her contract with the UFC in 2020, Paige VanZant signed with BKFC in an unexpected move. Since then she’s lost to Britain Hart and Rachael Ostovich pretty clearly. With VanZant’s contract being worth as high as $1 million with BKFC by some estimates, you would wonder how long Feldman would keep a fighter that expensive around despite them continuing to lose.
VanZant hasn’t won a fight in three years which was her armbar win over Rachael Ostovich at UFC on ESPN+ 1. To put that into perspective, that was the same card that Henry Cejudo knocked out TJ Dillashaw. Dillashaw would test positive for illegal substances, serve a 2 year suspension, and come back to win a fight since then.
While BKFC has signed a certain type of women fighters in the past, it might be time to get out of the PVZ business if it’s not paying off. With her OnlyFans clone being as successful as it is, one has to question, “Why fight anymore?”
