There has long been a debate in MMA about whether it is fair that especially attractive women get more attention (and thus, ultimately, money and opportunity) than do more average looking women. However, regardless of opportunity, regardless of looks, ultimately in mixed martial arts, you have to win.
Paige VanZant got opportunities (Reebok direct sponsorship and headlining an event) that were in excess of her experience. She wisely took advantage of them. But in her last fight, she was beaten bloody by a bald Rose Namajunas. In an appearance on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, PVZ said she was cleaning blood out of her ears for three weeks after the fight.
After the first round, the part-time model’s face looked like something out of the latest Tarantino Movie, but bloodier. Recounting it, PVZ talked about looking at the overhead screen, and showed a little smile.
“I think it’s awesome,” said VanZant to Marc Raimondi for MMAFighting. “I don’t know. I thought it was awesome. I was just looking to see how bad the cut was or where it was, because I wasn’t really sure. I saw it was under my eye, so it was good to go for the next five rounds or four rounds.”
“Especially because we did go to the ground a lot, I couldn’t see at all. And the blood completely filled my ears. I was cleaning blood out of my ears for three weeks after the fight. So I couldn’t hear anything. I couldn’t hear anything, I couldn’t see anything. No excuses. But yeah — a lot of blood.”
PVZ showed tremendous heart, and both she and Namajunas left with even more fans than they went into the fight with.
“I really didn’t expect that much support,” said VanZant. “I thought I embarrassed myself out there and I put on an embarrassing performance. But then afterward I had all these positive articles. I was reading all these positive things after the fight. It felt really good, especially after taking a loss not to take a ton of criticism for it. It was really neat that I still had a lot of fans come forward and my stock grew even after a loss.”
“I have a no-give-up attitude. It didn’t surprise me in that sense, but it was definitely a good test.”
VanZant is just 21 years old. She is attractive and mediagenic and got beaten bloody, and made new fans. Paige VanZant has what it takes.
