It’s been nearly four years since Paige VanZant last set foot in the BKFC ring, but it appears her bare-knuckle fighting days aren’t over yet.
Following a nine-fight run with the UFC, VanZant was one of the highest-profile free agent signings in BKFC history when she joined the promotion back in 2020. She ended up with a pair of decision losses to Britain Hart and Rachael Ostovich in her two appearances with BKFC, with a third fight scheduled in 2022 that was canceled before the event took place.
While VanZant has been staying busy lately working with Dana White’s Power Slap and just recently signing with Global Fight League, a new promotion that’s supposed to launch in 2025, she also had time to talk to BKFC president David Feldman at a recent event to discuss her future in bare-knuckle fighting as well.
“[Paige] was actually at that fight at Hard Rock last week and we talked,” Feldman revealed when speaking to MMA Fighting. “I said, ‘What’s up, are we going to do this or what?’ She said, ‘I’ve got one more fight on my contract, let’s go.’
“I know she’s talking about some other fight, possibly first, so that could be what she’s talking about, but absolutely Paige is in the early 2025 plans without a doubt. She’s game for it, we’re game for it.”
Despite VanZant struggling to find success through her first two fights with BKFC, Feldman says his devotion to giving her another opportunity goes beyond just what has unfolded in the ring.
Throughout BKFC’s brief history, the promotion has booked several viral fights and made numerous splashy signings with VanZant among that group when she joined the organization in 2020.
Feldman won’t ever forget that, so if VanZant wants to fight again in BKFC, he’s definitely going to give her that chance.
“Look, I never forget what people did for us,” Feldman said. ‘Although we paid her 10 times what she got paid in the UFC, she moved the needle for us. She was a big-time needle mover for us. Because people are like, ‘Paige VanZant’s fighting bare-knuckle? That’s crazy, right?’ I’ll never forget that.
“Certainly, she’s coming back at least for one more fight, 100 percent in early 2025.”
