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Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) strawweight Paige VanZant, who also competed at 125 pounds to alleviate her weight-cutting woes, will complete the final fight on her current contract when she collides with division standout Amanda Ribas next March in Brazil.
After that? It could be a huge score from UFC … or a career on Instagram.
Either way, VanZant refuses to be undervalued and will likely field offers from competing promotions, much the same way Cris Cyborg did with Scott Coker and Bellator MMA and Sage Northcutt did with ONE Championship in Singapore.
Sounds like Cynthia Calvillo won’t be sad to see her go, especially after “12 Gauge” included her former roommate on a very long (but not all-inclusive) list of callouts on Instagram — only to delete Calvillo’s replies for reasons not yet revealed.
“She’s not my concern in any kind of way,” Calvillo told MMA Fighting. “I don’t feel like me beating her would mean anything but I did [find it] bothersome with her calling me out and just deleting my replies. I feel like that’s more disrespectful. She would say it’s a respectable call out but yet delete replies. It was a lot of bullcrap.”
During her time at Team Alpha Male, head coach Urijah Faber warned her about “Pretty Girl Syndrome” and how most of the competition would be hating on her simply because of the way she looks (also known as the “hot girls” factor).
“I understand that’s her gimmick,” Calvillo continued. “That’s how she gets paid. She likes to get attention, stir up problems because no one’s ever going to pay attention to her for being one of the greatest fighters ever because she sucks at fighting. Give her attention because of the way she looks and she likes to stir drama. Cause that’s what she’s all about.”
Calvillo will look to win her third straight when she goes to war with undefeated flyweight sensation Marina Rodriguez at the UFC on ESPN 7 event this weekend in Washington, D.C., live on ESPN+ (more on that fight card here).