Knucklemania took place this past Friday night somewhere in Florida and in the main event Paige VanZant lost to Britain Hart. The loss brings into question VanZant’s career path after leaving the UFC.
VanZant, 26, professed that signing with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships allowed her to make more money than she had in the UFC and gave her opportunities to explore other offers. She told reporters in the leadup to the fight that she was making $40,000 to show and $40,000 to win after 6 years in the UFC. “…now I’m getting 10 times that doing what I love.” This is to infer that PVZ is making somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000 to $800,000 if we take her for her word.
Granted, BKFC finds itself in a similar situation that the UFC did many years ago. In fact, it ran opposite a more fringe boxing event PPV featuring Jose Canseco on Friday night. And if you think that these fringe, carnival-type fights do not have capital, Canseco allegedly made over a million for a few seconds of fighting by losing to a Barstool Sports intern.
So, there is money available to pay for her if one can pay a washed-up baseball player. But VanZant was once a brand name in MMA. She was a darling for her diminutive figure, good looks and, of course her fight acumen. Not to mention she is tough as nails. She ascended her division ladder quickly and was heavily promoted. She even made it onto ABC’s Dancing With The Stars.
As with combat sports, you have to keep winning to remain in the good graces of the fight promotion. After losing 3 of 4 fights in the UFC, she was allowed to explore her options rather than the UFC renewing her contract. This is to say that the UFC no longer saw her as a draw that moved the needle. In most cases, with fighters they value, they will not allow them to get to free agency.
Enter BKFC.
They made an offer to PVZ she couldn’t refuse and one can’t blame her for jumping at the opportunity. One must suspect that she turned down opportunities in MMA (which she probably had) for bare knuckle fighting which is even looked down upon by MMA enthusiasts. In order to swing someone with some fame in the UFC and a lot of social media followers, BKFC likely overpaid for her services. But you have to think that attaching her name to their promotion would bring purchasers of the PPV. She also has more opportunities with the promotion such as broadcasting and she could field other sponsorship opportunities. The overlooked weakness in her plan was that she had to come out winning to validate her move.
In her debut, PVZ didn’t get knocked out, nor did she look lost in there against a more experienced bare-knuckle fighter. Yet, it was clear that she was not handling the pressure put on her by Hart. While PVZ certainly can come back and right herself and have a successful career, the loss brings into doubt that path she has taken.
As pointed out by others, her loss dilutes interest in further watching PVZ fight. Knucklemania likely made more money that it ever has on PPV. While the card featured former UFC fighter Chris Leben, it was PVZ that was the headliner. She drove the card. The question is whether she can do it again?
PVZ questioned whether or not she wanted to retire immediately after the event but quickly retreated from those comments. Obviously, a demoralizing loss will make you question whether you want to continue but it’s clear that her competitive spirit not to mention the money made her decision to fight again easy.
It might be a little too early to second-guess her decision. We should remember that this is combat sports. The longer you stay in the sport, the more you get hurt. So, we shouldn’t condemn PVZ for taking the money and opportunity. Put another way, if she chose Bellator over BKFC and lost her fight with them, she would be in the same situation. Except, she likely would be making less.
One might predict for PVZ to come back to BKFC to fight again. It will come with pressure for her to win otherwise this path will be closer to a dead end than a road less traveled.
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