It hasn’t been a full month and another retired MMA star is planning a comeback.
This time, it’s Paige VanZant; the former UFC star came into the promotion hot by getting dominant wins over Kailin Curran, Felice Herrig and Alex Chambers. However, her lopsided loss to Rose Namajunas started her downward spiral within the UFC. VanZant got a couple of wins here and there, and her move to the flyweight division gave her some new life, but she was ultimately cut from the promotion in 2020.
Since then, the 30-year-old has been bouncing around from different places. VanZant even competed in All Elite Wrestling! However, that was just a one-off match. She fought in the short-lived Powerslap competition where she did fairly well. She tried her hand at Bare Knuckle Fighting, but has yet to win a match as she’s currently 0 - 2. VanZant even tried boxing at MisFits and her only fight ended in a draw.
On her Kickass Love Story podcast, VanZant confirmed that she signed a deal with GFL - Global Fight League.
“They are picking up anybody and everybody who has a name in this sport that’s a free agent,” VanZant said. “They offered me a contract and I said yes.”
VanZant stated that she expects to fight in 2025, but she never gives a possible date nor does she go into detail about her contract. She does explain how excited she is to fight for the new promotion. While offers from Bellator and several other MMA promotions were on the table, GFL just felt like the perfect fit for the former UFC star.
“I think this is the perfect opportunity because I didn’t necessarily leave MMA,” VanZant explained. “I definitely didn’t leave MMA because I wasn’t passionate about it, but when I became a free agent outside of the UFC, the biggest offer that came in was [from BKFC]. They were the ones. They presented the best offer to me and it was exciting, and it was new, and it really sparked my interest.
“Not that I didn’t want to fight for Bellator, or, I had a few others [who offered me a deal], but for me, that’s just not where my story, where I wanted to take it. And I was like, ‘No, I want to try this bare-knuckle boxing thing,’ and I absolutely loved it. ...
“Now there’s this new MMA promotion organization that actually made me really excited to fight for them.”
We’ll see if she fares better than her time in UFC. At the moment, her MMA record stands at 8 wins and 5 losses.