Bare Knuckle event, KnuckleMania was something wild to say the least. It featured UFC star, Paige VanZant, the biggest athlete to ever grace the ring in the history of Bare Knuckle Boxing (according to the ring announcer) in the pay-per-view main event.
Despite the big entrance to a new sport, not everything went to plan for the young fighter.
VanZant’s last UFC fight came against Amanda Ribas, where she endured a quick first-round submission loss at UFC 251. This happened to be the last fight of her current UFC contract and to many people’s surprise, she would test out the wonders of free agency.
After big-money offers from multiple organizations, VanZant decided to leave the sport of MMA to pursue a six-figure contract with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. To start off her chapter, she was called out by former pro boxer Britain Hart ringside. The two would be scheduled to fight this Super Bowl weekend on “KnuckleMania.”
In a five-round slugfest, VanZant would go on to lose a controversial unanimous decision to Hart. After a slow start for VanZant in the earlier instances of the fight, “12 Gauge” would turn off the safety to fight her strongest in the latter half of round 4 and ignited in the fifth and final round with a series of shots to Hart.
Despite the comeback, the 3 ringside judges would all score this competitive fight 49-46, in favor of Hart.
VanZant isn’t new to losses in the fight game and took a very humble approach to this defeat on social media.
“The greatest test of courage on earth is to bear our defeat without losing heart.” said VanZant. “Last night I told my husband I didn’t want to fight any more. But as soon as the words left my lips I knew that wasn’t true. I’m a fighter. This is what I live for.”
“Losers quit when they fail, winners fail until they succeed. That fight last night was a good learning experience for me. The timing and distance took a little bit to figure out. But I felt my last round was my best round and I’m going to build off of that! I’m thankful to fight for the best team in the world and we are going to go back and fix our mistakes.”
“Thank you to Britain for competing last night and congrats on [the] victory! I’m also confident we will cross paths again.”
While unsuccessful in her first time fighting professionally fighting without the comfort of a 4-ounce glove, VanZant is confident that she will do it again inside the BKFC promotion.
“I’m not going anywhere, boss.” VanZant stated to BKFC president, David Feldman, on Instagram.
Who do you think Paige VanZant fight next?