Rose Namajunas vs. Paige VanZant | UFC Betting Sites

Months back, current UFC women’s strawweight title challenger Claudia Gadelha labeled fellow contender Paige “12 Gauge” VanZant as a “pretty dancer” rather than a fighter.

Although she suffered a bloody loss in her last bout against Rose Namajunas, the 21-year-old VanZant has definitely proven herself to be a legitimate fighter despite her good looks, and flashy charm.

However, it also appears as if Gadelha’s statement may have been partially correct, as it was announced today (March 8, 2016) that VanZant has been selected to be part of the cast of the 22nd season of ABC’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’ Reality show.

The move makes sense, as “12 Gaauge” has spoken on her interest in competitive dancing in the past.

The No. 7-ranked strawweight contender won’t be the first fighter to have appeared on the show either, as former champions Randy “The Natural” Couture and Chuck “The Iceman” Liddell took part in seasons 19 and nine respectively.

The upcoming season is set to premiere on March 21, 2016, lasting until sometime in May.

With that being said, the Team Alpha Male Staple will likely remain out of action until sometime late this summer at the earliest.

VanZant currently holds a 3-1 UFC record, and will look to get back to her winning ways upon her return.

The post Paige VanZant Selected To Appear On Dancing With The Stars appeared first on LowKick MMA.

Rising UFC women’s strawweight contender Paige “12 Guage” VanZant suffered a slight set back in her last bout when she took on former title challenger “Thug” Rose Namaunas in the main event of December 10, 2015’s UFC Fight Night 80 from Las Vegas.

Despite being on the short end of a brutal and bloody five round beating, “12 Guage” recently called the loss “awesome”:

“I think it’s awesome,” VanZant told Ariel Helwani on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “I don’t know. I thought it was awesome. I was just looking to see how bad the cut was or where it was, because I wasn’t really sure. I saw it was under my eye, so it was good to go for the next five rounds or four rounds.”

Namajunas would go on to score a submission victory in the final frame, proving to the world that was a legitimate threat at 115-pounds, while also making it clear that the 21 year old VanZant has some holes in her game to improve on.

Although the fight was fairly one sided, PVZ has received quite a bit of praise and support regarding her pure heart, grit, and toughness, something she didn’t necessarily expect:

“I really didn’t expect that much support,” VanZant said. “I thought I embarrassed myself out there and I put on an embarrassing performance. But then afterward I had all these positive articles. I was reading all these positive things after the fight. It felt really good, especially after taking a loss not to take a ton of criticism for it. It was really neat that I still had a lot of fans come forward and my stock grew even after a loss.”

While Namajunas’ skill set was clearly the superior on fight night, VanZant was also a bloody mess from the first round on, something that may have hindered her performance as well. Not making any excuses, the Team Alpha Male product admitted the she had blood in her ears for weeks after the scrap:

“Especially because we did go to the ground a lot, I couldn’t see at all,” VanZant said. “And the blood completely filled my ears. I was cleaning blood out of my ears for three weeks after the fight. So I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t see anything. No excuses. But yeah — a lot of blood.”

At the end of the day, VanZant proved that while there’s obviously room for improvement, she isn’t one to give up too easily:

“I have a no-give-up attitude,” VanZant said. “It didn’t surprise me in that sense, but it was definitely a good test.”

Who should “12 Guage” meet next?

The post VanZant On “Awesome” Loss To Namajunas: No Excuses, But Lots Of Blood appeared first on LowKick MMA.