Paige VanZant is taking her first loss under the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship banner well.
The long-anticipated debut of Paige VanZant at BKFC: KnuckleMania may not have gone the way she wanted, but she seems to be taking her loss well.
VanZant met veteran Bare Knuckle FC competitor Britain Hart in the main event of the evening. Over the course of five rounds, Hart got the better of the exchanges and hit VanZant with plenty of hard shots to the head and body. VanZant stayed in the fight with a clinch-heavy gameplan, and even tried to bring about the end of the fight with a more urgent approach in the final round, but it was not enough to overcome the volume and pressure from Hart.
Hart would go on to defeat VanZant by way of unanimous decision with all three judges scoring the fight 49-46. Both women came together at the end of the fight and shared a few words with one another, with VanZant telling Hart to “be humble” in her victory as she would be doing the same in her defeat.
VanZant then took to social media to do just that in her first post-fight comments since the end of BKFC: KnuckleMania.
“Humble in victory. Humble in defeat,” wrote VanZant alongside a picture of her face after the fight. The damage she received from Hart was a small mouse under her left eye as well as a cut that needed some stitches.
Although her first fight in Bare Knuckle resulted in a loss, VanZant was still praised by her opponent for her performance. Hart spoke at the post-fight press conference and said VanZant definitely lived up to the expectations of a very hard hitter.
“I’ve never been hit as hard as Paige VanZant, I’ll give her that. So, everyone got it right,” said Hart. “Whoever said that girl had power, they were not lying. That was the hardest I’ve ever been hit and I’ve been hit by grown men, unfortunately, a few times in my life. They didn’t even hit as hard as Paige VanZant did, so credit to her. I had some big things for that, so wake up call, man.”
Hart sees her record move to 2-2 in the promotion, while VanZant starts at 0-1.