Photo by Phil Lambert for Bare Knuckle FC
Paige VanZant says her next fight will be in bare knuckle
Paige VanZant has finally offered some details about her fighting future. The former UFC star turned bare knuckle fighter spoke with MMA Fighting’s Damon Martin and said that her next fight will once again be with BKFC although no timeline was provided.
“I feel like I am in a position where I’m just having fun working out and training right now,” the 29-year-old VanZant said. “I’m going back to when I first started. I want to find that spark and that passion again to where I’m not fighting to make the president of the company happy, I’m not fighting for sponsors. I’m not fighting for my family, to help them out, to get them out of dark times.
“I’m in a great place where I can do all these things that I actually set out to do. I can help my family. I can do these things, but I don’t have to fight for that to be possible. Now it’s like I get to choose when I fight. It’s really nice.”
VanZant went 8-5 as a professional mixed martial artist, and while she has not closed the door entirely on MMA, she does seem to be satisfied in fighting bare knuckle.
“It’s definitely bare-knuckle, and I don’t know if it’s down the road in six months, I don’t know if it’s down the road a year,” VanZant said. “I really just haven’t decided yet. I’m going to leave a lot of that up to my manager and my coaches. Just work on this time to get better and enjoy the training and not worry about signing a fight contract right away. But it’s definitely bare-knuckle.
“I love bare-knuckle boxing. I’ve now gone 10 rounds in bare-knuckle boxing and I’m searching for that victory. I’m searching for a lot of things in bare-knuckle boxing that I haven’t accomplished, and it will be with BKFC again.”
VanZant dropped back-to-back unanimous decision losses inside the squared circled to both Britain Hart and Rachael Ostovich. She was then scheduled to return against Charisa Sigala only to have the fight cancelled just days before the contest.
