Former UFC star Paige VanZant rose to international acclaim as a very good mixed martial arts fighter who consistently exceeded what folks expected from her.
While she never quite achieved championship-level status, she came close. And there is a fair case to be made that if she hadn’t run into the buzzsaw that is Rose Namajunas, she could have eventually competed for a title.
Given that Namajunas went on to become not only a multi-time UFC Women’s Strawweight Champion, but also arguably the most skilled fighter the division had ever seen, losing to her isn’t particularly indicative of anything.
In 2020 VanZant finished out her UFC run and became a free agent. In the years since, she has done work with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship and expressed an openness to compete with Bellator.
Outside of fighting, though – VanZant has also worked tirelessly to develop a personal brand.
To date, VanZant has accumulated more than 3 million followers on Instagram and nearly 400,000 on Twitter. Any time she posts anything, it goes viral. Case in point, this provocative video she published on Saturday night:
Peek-a-boo. 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/DhB3ixaZ72
— Paige VanZant (@paigevanzant) January 30, 2022
This isn’t the first time VanZant has blown up the internet with her antics.
Just a few weeks back, she went mega-viral discussing the special tape she made with her husband. Prior to that, she made headlines for things like modeling for photos wearing nothing but a whipped cream bikini and several other spicy wardrobe choices.
And then of course there are just her standard Instagram posts:
Big picture, it will be interesting to see where VanZant’s career goes from here. Obviously her bare knuckle fighting stint didn’t go as planned.
But that doesn’t mean her MMA career is over.
Yikes. https://t.co/R2L3c6Ni65
— Game 7 (@game7__) January 28, 2022
VanZant still has unrivaled name recognition. That alone should ensure that she consistently finds promotions to sign her over the next few years no matter what.
Is Bellator up next for VanZant? Time will tell.
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A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
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