Is Paige VanZandt leaving the UFC?
Paige VanZant is set to enter the octagon for the 9th time in the UFC on July 11th at Fight Island against Amanda Ribas. This fight will mark the last fight on her current contract with the UFC.
Many fighters, media members, and fans believe this will be VanZant’s last fight in the UFC.
Teammate, Chael Sonnen, gave his thoughts on the Ariel and Bad Guy show on ESPN.
“True or false July 11th will be will Paige VanZandt’s last fight,” Ariel asked.
“I believe that to be true. I think that she is interested in doing something else. And I don’t come to you as her teammate with insider knowledge. But that’s kind of what she siad publicly. She made it look like she going to join her husband in Bellator,” Chael explained.
Paige is yet another fighter who has publicly argued being underpaid and undervalued.
Paige VanZandt is one of the most popular names in the sport. But with only one fight left on her current UFC contract, VanZant told Ariel Helwani that she intends to finish this contract out and then will be asking for a substantial pay raise for her next one.
“In general, I’m happy where I am but I do think my value is significantly higher than what I’m currently valued at,” VanZant said. “I want a significant pay raise, to be completely honest. I do think that my value is really low. My manager says I need to start talking highly about myself and standing up for myself. So when I fought Michelle Waterson, we had some of the highest views on FOX in years and years and years. We set the record, we blew everyone out. We had amazing views when we were on FOX, killed it on FOX. Coming off of Dancing with the Stars, with the fan base I’ve been able to build up, doing my book tour, I’ve just been extremely accomplished outside of the UFC as well as in the UFC.
“The hard thing for me to put in perspective is with endorsements I make way more money sitting at home, posting pictures on Instagram, than I do fighting,” VanZant said. “With endorsement deals and everything I pull in from social media, I would actually be a a loss just taking a fight and focusing on that. If I were to stop everything I do outside of fighting and take a fight, I would be at a loss financially.
“With TV endorsements and all the things that I do, and coming off of Sports Illustrated, if I’m gonna keep breaking my arm, if I’m gonna keep sacrificing for this sport – I feel like it’s all fighters and all female fighters need to be recognized.
“When I did my contract negotiation the last time, the talk was, ‘I can’t pay you more than a female champion.’ Okay, but why are comparing me to just women? All of us should be getting paid more in general. Especially the women and especially based on your star power.”
Paige VanZandt submitted another rising star in the women flyweight division, Rachael Ostovich, last January. With this being her last contractual fight many believe Paige’s next move will be to Bellator. Austin Vanderford, Paige’s husband, is a current middleweight at Bellator and it seems his wife will be joining him soon.
Do you believe this will be Paige’s last showcase in the UFC?
