Paige VanZant has fought ten times as a professional MMA fighter and all of those fights have come in the strawweight division.
The female stars next bout is taking place at flyweight and she plans on remaining in the division from now on, mainly due to passing out during previous weight cuts.
“I kind of put my foot down on this one,” VanZant said on The MMA Hour. “It was time for me to move up. It's a big cut for me. I’m a lot heavier than people realize. I was honestly killing myself for this sport. In my last I want to say two fights or three fights, I’ve passed out in my bathroom. This last one, I passed out and had the doctors almost not cleared me for the fight.”
Besides passing out during weight cuts, the female fighter’s parents also played a role in her changing weight classes.
“My parents have never seen me cut weight, but they watched this one and they told me if I ever did that again they were gonna disown me,” VanZant said. “They thought, I'm killing myself for this and it's not worth it. It's not worth hurting myself physically for a sport.”
VanZant’s first opponent at flyweight is going to be Jessica Eye at UFC 216, who has spent her entire UFC run in the bantamweight division
UFC 216 takes place on Saturday, October 7 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with Tony Ferguson and Kevin Lee headlining. Fightful is providing live coverage of the event, with a post-show podcast to follow.
