After an eight-month hiatus which saw her go and compete on Dancing with the Stars, Paige VanZant returned to the UFC to secure a vicious head-kick KO in 2016.
When Paige VanZant debuted in the UFC back in 2014, she was widely regarded as the future of women’s MMA and received a huge push from the promotion.
Fast forward a year to 2015 and the strawweight decided to take a break from fighting following a submission loss to Rose Namajunas in her first main event.
Paige VanZant scores a stunning KO over Bec Rawlings in her comeback
’12 Gauge’ decided to take an eight-month hiatus which saw her compete in reality TV show, Dancing with the Stars.
The then-UFC star finished the competition as the runner-up and shortly after, she opted to make her return to the promotion.
The UFC matched her up with Bec Rawlings who had a mediocre start to her UFC career following her stint on The Ultimate Fighter.
VanZant came out in round one of her meeting with Rawlings extremely tentative, and ‘Rowdy’ dominated for the majority of the first five minutes.
Despite that, in the interval between rounds, VanZant was implored by her corner team to focus on simple strikes so that she could work her way into the fight.
However, just 17 seconds into round two, the star strawweight landed a hellacious jumping switch kick, connecting flush on the chin of Rawlings and sending her sinking into the canvas.
Although even prior to the fight there was a lot of hype surrounding VanZant, her win over Rawlings only intensified that and grew her starpower.
Will Paige VanZant ever return to the UFC and what is next for her?
Unfortunately, ’12 Gauge’ struggled to ever live up to the hype surrounding her and she exited the UFC in 202 after picking up her fourth loss in the promotion.
Since her exit from the promotion, the 30-year-old has competed in several different avenues of combat sports. VanZant took her talents to the Bare-Knuckle Boxing ring before Conor McGregor became a co-owner of BKFC but unfortunately lost on both occasions.
The striker has also competed in Misfits Boxing against influencer boxer, Elle Brooke and the two fought to a split draw.
Since then, VanZant has gotten closer to a return to the UFC as she has competed twice under Dana White’s Power Slap banner.
In her debut outing in Power Slap, she picked up the unanimous decision win and admitted how much she enjoyed competing in the sport. She then went on to face the wife of UFC legend, John Dodson, Chelsea Dodson but they couldn’t be separated on the scorecards.
Although the former UFC star doesn’t currently have a combat sports outing booked, she has recently teased on her Instagram that she has fight news coming soon.
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