For someone whom critics claimed was only featured on network television because of her looks, Paige VanZant sure knows how to fight.
Both the UFC and network television partner FOX were heavily criticized in the buildup to Saturday night’s UFC on FOX 15 card in Newark, N.J., for placing VanZant’s fight against Felice Herrig on the main card.
This, the trolls bleated, was a matter of cheesecake over substance. Certainly there were more worthy fighters in the newly established strawweight division who could use the boost.
VanZant got the bulk of the hate. Less than a month past her 21st birthday, VanZant entered the Prudential Center with just five fights to her credit. And she already had a Reebok sponsorship, something usually reserved for the likes of Jon Jones and Ronda Rousey. Though Herrig has also been criticized for taking advantage of her looks, at least she was a veteran of 15 fights.
But there’s no better revenge than proving yourself in competition. VanZant went out and silenced her detractors on Saturday with a star-turning victory. Her performance against Herrig was so dominant that she earned a pair of 10-8 scores in the third round, capping a unanimous decision win on scores of 30-27, 30-26 and 30-26.
“I felt it [the pressure],” VanZant (5-1) admitted during Saturday’s post-fight news conference.
UFC president Dana White, never one prone to understatement, went so far as to compare VanZant to Irish superstar Conor McGregor in an interview on FOX Sports 1.
“It's almost like the Conor McGregor thing," White said. "The guy bursts out of nowhere, explodes onto the scene and backs it up. And Paige VanZant did tonight, too. She looked unbelievable. And she is. She's one of those people that has that thing.”
That may seem like a bit of a stretch. But White’s onto something when he refers to ‘that thing.’
What is 'that thing?' It’s an intangible that seems to have something to do with a lack of situational awareness. McGregor riled up the featherweight division by speaking out of turn, then going out and backing up his trash talk in the cage, in defiance of the high stakes and pressure of his fights.
VanZant seems incapable of McGregor-style trash talk. Her approach is to let it all roll off her back. But likewise, she demonstrated the ability to rise to the occasion. Herrig (10-6) did her best to get into VanZant’s head coming into the fight, but VanZant didn't bite, seemingly unaware the fight’s hype had turned into a runaway train.
“I understand that some competitors have to get into that mindset,” VanZant said of Herrig’s mind games. “She’s about to go into a fight, you know? Some people have to get in that mindset like you have to hate your opponent. I don’t have to do that. It’s like my birthday every time I walk out to the cage. This is what I love to do. I don’t have to hate the person I’m fighting.”
So who will be the next fighter to give VanZant the chance to feel like it’s her birthday? That’s easier said than done. The women’s 115-pound division was instituted late last year. It has already been through quite a bit of upheaval as the division gets established. The first champion, Carla Esparza, took a savage beating in losing the title to undefeated Polish star Joanna Jedrzejczyk last month. Last week, the woman presumed to be her next contender, Scotland’s Joanne Calderwood, was upset by unheralded Maryna Moroz of Ukraine.
VanZant has everything on paper to become the UFC’s second breakthrough women’s star, after Rousey. But VanZant, who is affiliated with Urijah Faber’s Team Alpha Male gym in Sacramento, just as clearly remains an unpolished work in progress. On one hand, it's too soon to put her in the cage with the top of the division. On the other, she just ragdolled a ranked fighter in Herrig.
“The problem with Paige is, she’s young, she’s 5-1, but she’s probably going to be ranked in the low top 10 now,” White said. “She’s going to be nine, 10, eight, she’s going to be in that ballpark somewhere. We’ll see how we move her, but she’s definitely in the danger zone now.”
A ranked opponent of a similar experience level, such as Rose Namajunas or Tecia Torres (who handed VanZant her only career loss in 2013), would seem to make sense. But VanZant is willing to take on whoever comes her way.
“Of course I’m going to take any fight that’s offered to me,” VanZant said. “But with the strawweight fights that are coming up, with the ranking system being so new, I think we’ll see more accurate rankings on who is available.”
But that’s for later. For now, even though VanZant isn’t the type to come right out and tell her detractors, 'I told you so.' VanZant is going to take a moment to savor a network TV debut that couldn’t have gone any better.
“I have an amazing support system and I have the best family and the best team in the world,” she said. “I try to soak it in every time I get to be in the Octagon, I’m so blessed. When I walk out, I take in the fans and that’s something I never dreamed would have happened to me, so I’m not nervous the night of the fight, I get to soak it all in.”
Follow Dave Doyle on Twitter: davedoylemma
