How about Paige VanZant, you guys? She showed up in Vancouver last week, coming off a loss and star-making reality show competition turn, only to shock us with a stunning new move.

I am, of course, talking about the strawweight contender’s pre-fight declaration that she’s realized she and other UFC athletes don’t get paid very well.

Going through ‘Dancing With the Stars,’ I got to see what other athletes out there make, and I was like, ‘Hey, I don’t make that much money,’ she said to MMAjunkie.

Yeah, VanZant would go on to knock Bec Rawlings out with a nasty flying switch kick to the head, but to me the real shocker was her publicly criticizing UFC pay beforehand. By now, it is common knowledge that UFC athletes get a much smaller percentage of the organization’s revenue than do mainstream athletes from other leagues like the NFL, MLB, and NBA.

UFC fighters stand out as the rare mainstream athletes who aren’t currently bargaining collectively for things like licensing royalties, pensions, and other benefits and sources of income. From top to bottom, UFC athletes have little in the way of appropriate pay or job security.

That isn’t news, anymore. What is, however, is someone like Paige VanZant pointing it out.

Before last week, I never would have guessed that 12 gauge would ever lock, load and aim at the UFC. After all, up until her comments, the discussion around pay for her and fellow teeny-bopper warrior Sage Northcutt had always been about how much they were getting paid.

After all, Sage and Paige have gotten larger promotional pushes, endorsement opportunities, and paychecks than most UFC veterans who have way more wins and experience than them. All that is fine and good, and VanZant herself went on to express her gratitude at being able to fight in the UFC, in her position.

The toothy badass knows she gets paid better than most, but apparently correctly realizes that she and everyone else should still get a lot more. After her win, she continued to beat the UFC fighter pay drum.

Conor McGregor had an amazing payday and it’s about time, she said on The MMA Hour.

I don’t see that as an excessive amount of money with what he’s doing…It’s about right, and hopefully that starts trickling down and everybody starts making more money.”

Paige VanZant is good at playing the game. She’ll do the interviews, dance on the reality shows, shoot commercials, smile through opponents’ mean-mugging during staredowns.

Paige will smile, and smile and smile. In the end, however, she always means business – both in the cage and in, well, business.