Paige VanZant made her Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship debut on Friday night as she faced Britain Hart at KnuckleMania. However, the 26-year old fighter came up short in her BKFC debut, losing to Hart via unanimous decision. The final score was Hart 49-46 over VanZant from all three judges.
VanZant signed with BKFC after spending six years at UFC. The contract VanZant signed was a four-bout deal worth more than $1 million with incentives, according to ESPN. Earlier this week, VanZant talked to the New York Post about making the transition to bare-knuckle boxing after being in MMA for many years.
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Britain Hart defeats PVZ in PVZ’s Bare Knuckle debut #KnuckleMania pic.twitter.com/G92MROjzX4
— Spinnin Backfist (@SpinninBackfist) February 6, 2021
“No, not at all,” VanZant said when talking about BKFC being on her radar. “I always thought of [bare knuckle boxing] as something I would want to do, but I didn’t know that it would be my home. I didn’t know that they would be such a big player in the negotiation process, and they ended up being one of the biggest players.” One of the reasons VanZant signed with BFKC was to earn respect. Despite being one of the bigger names in MMA, VanZant is criticized because of her being outspoken about her pay and making appearances on reality shows such as Dancing with the Stars and Chopped. VanZant won five of her nine matches in UFC and could return to MMA once her contract with BKFC is up.
“I don’t know that I am done with MMA,” VanZant said to ESPN. “I know momentarily I am. I still have a huge passion for MMA, and I just recently relocated to Florida to train with American Top Team. Obviously they are one of the best MMA gyms in the world. Right now, my sole focus is boxing, but in a few years I could go back to MMA or I could just be making so much doing this bare knuckle boxing that I don’t do anything else.”
VanZant is getting a lot of money from BKFC, but he’s also making income on social media. This week, the 26-year-old fighter launched her own subscription-based website where fans pay a monthly fee to see her exclusive content. When VanZant became a free agent, she told ESPN that she talked to a lot of different promotions.” However, she “had no idea” she would have “so many come with big offers.” VanZant revealed that Bellator and ONE were two of the promotions that were ready to sign her.
