It’s good to have options, and Paige VanZant has a lot of them.
Following her UFC exit in 2020, the now 30-year-old fighter wasted no time inking a lucrative, multi-fight contract to take her gloves off and fight in BKFC. From there, VanZant launched her own website, and eventually an OnlyFans page, that has reportedly made her millions.
Now she’ll cross over to boxing for an upcoming main event with Misfits, the influencer fight league started by KSI and British boxing promoter Mams Taylor.
“Honestly, we just got the call from my manager,” VanZant told MMA Fighting about her introduction to Misfits. “Originally, I think they had asked me to fight in March, and it would have been like a three- or four-week camp, maybe less. I was like, yeah, perfect, let’s do it. That didn’t happen, and of course we were just waiting for dates, waiting for dates.
“We’d been training for this. We kind of knew me boxing on Misfits was going to happen eventually. We got it all settled down and now I’ve got a boxing match coming up.”
VanZant’s first fight with Misfits comes against fellow OnlyFans star and current champion Elle Brooke, who won her title with a vicious knockout of A.J. Bunker back in January.
As much as the fight may look more like a spectacle considering VanZant’s legit credentials as a UFC and BKFC veteran, she’s taking the opportunity very seriously.
In fact, VanZant revealed that Misfits didn’t just bring her over for a single fight, and she’s actually planning on dedicating more of her time to boxing moving forward.
“Misfits actually signed me to a multi-fight contract,” VanZant said. “So I think there’s rumors they want me to fight again in Dubai, at one of their cards. I’m here to stay.
“Of course there’s other opportunities, I still definitely will be in BKFC. I absolutely love the promotion. I loved bare-knuckle boxing. So this is just another of those boxing matches and it’s really, really exciting.”
VanZant has remained committed to an eventual BKFC return, even after her most recently scheduled bout in 2022 was scrapped just days before the event. She’s stayed in contact with the promotion but hasn’t booked another fight since her last BKFC appearance in 2021.
There’s no word on when she’ll compete in bare-knuckle again, but VanZant promises she’s not done with BKFC, even as she prepares to embark on a new adventure with Misfits.
“Oh absolutely [I will fight in BKFC again],” VanZant said. “I believe I still have one more fight on my contract with them. So they were nice enough to let me come do a boxing match with gloves on. I offered it to my opponent if she wanted to do bare-knuckle, she said no. So BKFC will definitely see me again.”
As far as boxing goes, VanZant never strayed too far from potentially exploring a move over to that sport, although the timing worked out perfectly once Misfits came calling.
“There was a reason I went into bare-knuckle boxing out of the UFC,” VanZant explained. “It was something that I wanted to do. I wanted to be immersed in boxing. It wasn’t just that BKFC excited me. It was being in the boxing world and working on my striking and having fun with just striking, honestly. BKFC was the one who came with the offer first and I was like, f*ck yeah, I don’t mind taking the gloves off.
“So now I have an offer in boxing with gloves on. It’s like taking one little element out of the puzzle. For me, I’ve always boxed for my training. I’ve been doing it my entire life. Finally, I got a real boxing match.”
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