Paige VanZant knew she was going to shock the world when the announcement was made that she was leaving the UFC and signing a deal to join Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships.
While her exit from the UFC wasn’t all that surprising given her concerns over the pay scale in the promotion, the fact that the 26-year-old flyweight, who doubles as a model in her spare time, would make the decision to compete in a sport where getting really bloody is just part of the deal.
Despite a study conducted in coordination with the Association of Ringside Physicians that actually showed fighters competing in bare-knuckle boxing are concussed less often while also receiving fewer broken hands than their counterparts in mixed martial arts or boxing, the aesthetics surrounding the aftermath of a typical contest in a BKFC bout is a much tougher pill to swallow.