- I know I'm not done yet, and I haven't accomplished
nearly what I'm gonna accomplish in my life.
Resurgence, a rising again
into life, activity, or prominence.
My name is Paige VanZant
and I'm a professional fighter for the UFC.
I grew up in a small country town.
Dance was definitely my main passion for a very long time.
I did a few like professional dance shows as a kid.
I won a ton of scholarships.
Tried out for cheerleading, I made Varsity as a freshman,
which was supposed to be amazing,
and supposed to be like a dream come true.
It couldn't have been more awful.
People hated me and I was extremely bullied,
and I went day by day being attacked.
I just put a book out and it talked
about a sexual assault that I went through.
You know, it took me a long time
to actually open up about that
and even open up to my parents about what happened to me.
You get picked apart and people don't believe you,
or people wanna make fun of you for it, or what did you do
to ask for something like that to happen to you.
For the longest time I wanted to just pretend
that it didn't happen, and if I just didn't talk about it,
then it wouldn't be true.
My dad lost his job, and we had the opportunity for him
to just get another one in the same town,
or he asked if we should move.
Then I was like we have to get out of here.
He got one in Reno, Nevada, and that's when I found MMA.
My dad took me to an MMA gym,
which he was huge fan of Ken Shamrock,
who owned a local gym in Reno, Nevada.
And I got to heel hook and choke my dad out,
which was awesome, and just slowly but surely,
the way that the gym made me feel,
the way my dad made me feel by going to these classes,
slowly, slowly got my confidence back.
Eventually it became just that repetition of coming
into the gym, and they really made me feel like I was home.
I don't think they even realized the impact
that they had on my life because of everything
that I had went through, that was the only thing
where I actually put myself out there.
And I was like all right, I'm a part of something,
I'm a part of this team.
Then you realize like wow, I'm actually really good at this.
(rock music)
I was gonna fight this girl named Joanne Calderwood,
where she pulled out due to injury,
and I ended up fighting Rose Namajunas,
and that was my first ever UFC loss.
It was a five-round absolute war.
She cut me open in the first round.
There was blood everywhere.
That's kinda where I made my name as a fighter.
It showed my toughness, my tenacity, my heart,
overcoming every single obstacle
that she could throw at me in that fight,
and that's where people were
like all right, she's a fighter.
After that I fought Bec Rawlings, and I finished her
with a second round head kick knockout, which was awesome.
And then I lost again.
I was on my way to fighting for a bell at two more fights
and I could fight for a title, two more fights,
and I got to fight Rose one more time.
And then I break my arm in the middle of a fight.
I was doing well in the fight,
I was finally finding my rhythm,
I was getting my striking going.
And I threw a spinning back fist,
and if it would have been just four inches lower,
I would have brutally knocked her out.
But she ducked her head and I hit her right on the forehead,
and I heard this loud snap.
And at first, with that adrenaline going,
I had no idea that the snap was my arm.
I did everything I could
to try to win the fight, to keep going.
It just didn't matter.
They put a plate in and seven screws.
I immediately got back into training,
I got back to doing everything that I could
right after the surgery to try to stay on track
and get my momentum back to fight again.
We get to the six month post-op,
and my arm had 0% signs of healing,
which meant I had a broken arm for six months.
There was still a total fracture down the middle of it.
So a huge surgery, a huge plate,
they took a bone graft and platelets from my hip,
so I had to have a pretty extreme hip surgery.
I haven't been able to train for nine months,
and that's, you know that's nine months
where every single girl in my division is training.
Every single girl in my division is fighting,
and winning, and putting themselves forward,
so their careers are all being propelled,
where I feel like I'm stuck in the exact same spot.
I know I'm not done yet, and I haven't accomplished
nearly what I'm gonna accomplish in my life.
I've had these two losses and I'm gonna get them back
and I'm gonna win and it's that one thing
that I think professional athletes have in their mind
that they'll never be good enough,
and they've never accomplished enough.
And there are still goals that I have for my future
that I haven't reached yet that I know I'm going to.
MMA definitely, it saved my life, it saved me as a person.
I thought the world was this dark, dark place.
And until you go through something that significant,
and then go through these successes,
it gave me a sense of purpose, it gave me a sense of relief.
And I really figured out who I am.
I'm Paige Vanzant now.
I'm a professional fighter for the UFC.
And my life matters, and I have a purpose.