What Happened to Paige VanZant?
Since exiting the UFC in 2020 after a submission loss to Amanda Ribas at UFC 251, Paige VanZant has treated combat sports like a buffet, jumping between bare‑knuckle boxing, influencer boxing, slap fighting and a short run in pro wrestling.
What Happened to Paige VanZant?
She signed a lucrative multi‑fight deal with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship worth over $1 million, went 0-2 there against Britain Hart and Rachael Ostovich in 2021, inked a contract with All Elite Wrestling in 2022, boxed influencer Elle Brooke in 2024, and most recently became one of the faces of Dana White’s Power Slap.
On paper, that sounds busy. In reality, VanZant’s fight schedule has been stop‑start. A planned BKFC return in 2022 fell through after she fractured her foot during a trip to Alaska, an injury that revealed two older breaks on X‑ray and pushed back a third bare‑knuckle bout she hoped to have “probably in April” 2023. Before that, her UFC run had already left a mark: she has broken the same arm five times, needed two surgeries and now carries a plate that runs the length of her forearm, something she admits makes the idea of a full MMA return “hard” mentally even if the arm is functional.
In 2022 she shifted some focus to pro wrestling, signing a long‑term AEW deal and debuting on Dynamite in an angle with Dan Lambert’s American Top Team stable. The run never really took off; by 2023 she was quietly off AEW’s books despite still being listed on some roster pages. Attention then moved back to striking sports.
In May 2024 she made her professional boxing debut against Misfits middleweight champion Elle Brooke in Houston, getting dropped in the first round but rallying to a five‑round split draw as Brooke retained her title. A month later she stepped into slap fighting for Power Slap, beating Christine Wolmarans on points and finally snapping a long winless run.
Where is Paige VanZant?
The real reason fans have seen less of her lately is a serious neck injury. In 2025 VanZant was booked to rematch Michelle Brown for the first women’s Power Slap title during International Fight Week in Las Vegas. Weeks before the event she pulled out and went public on Instagram: doctors had discovered a spontaneous spinal epidural hematoma in her neck, a rare “one‑in‑a‑million” bleed around the spinal cord that, in many cases, leaves patients with paralysis or rapid loss of arm function.
A neurosurgeon reviewing her MRI was reportedly surprised she had no neurological deficits, and she was warned that the wrong kind of impact could change that quickly. Power Slap shelved the women’s title plans and, according to reports, is prepared to wait for her rather than crown another champion.
That scare has led to a de facto hiatus from taking damage, but it has not pushed VanZant out of the spotlight. She remains one of the most followed ex‑UFC fighters on social media, with around 6 million combined followers across platforms, and she has leaned hard into modeling and content.
VanZant has an ongoing presence with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit, which continues to run galleries, bikini features and style pieces built off her 2019 shoot and newer content. She has also said her content page became her primary income stream.
Despite the neck issue, VanZant keeps talking like someone who expects to compete again. Earlier in 2025, BKFC president David Feldman said she still has one fight left on her contract and is “100 percent” in his plans for at least one more bout, ideally in the first half of the year.
