No Bad Blood? Felice Herrig & Paige VanZant Separated During Staredown
UFC on FOX 15 is set to go down this Saturday (April 18, 2015) from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey. With a stacked lineup from a head to toe, the main card opener, which features a pivotal women’s strawweight battle between Felice Herrig and Paige VanZant, may be getting overlooked.
There’s clearly some tension between the two contenders. Herrig reportedly took a shot at “12 Gauge” recently, saying that VanZant would not have succeeded against the cast of 115-pounderson The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 20. Adding fuel to that fire, the two actually had to be separated by UFC president Dana White during a staredown at today (April 16, 2015), clearly showing signs of a rivalry, at least of some sorts. Watch things get heated courtesy of MMAFighting:
Speaking with MMAJunkie recently, Herrig claimed that the two ladies are strictly opponents, saying that there is no rivalry and no beef between the two, but also noting that they don’t have a relationship:
“I don’t know why people have to say ‘relationship’ – there’s no relationship with Paige,” Herrig said. “She’s my opponent. The UFC put us in a situation to have to do all of our media together. It is what it is. We’re professionals, and we show that. I’m not going to sit here and have beef with her when I don’t. I’m not going to try to smack talk her during the interviews – I’m not going to give her dirty looks.
“That’s all about professionalism. There doesn’t have to be bad blood going into a fight.”
VanZant seemed to agree, saying that she views all of the strawweights as just another opponent:
“We’re just two opponents who are going to fight each other, and that’s how I am with all the strawweights in my division,” VanZant mentioned. “I look at them all as potential opponents and I just know to go out there and do my best on Saturday.”
According to VanZant, her goal is just to go out there and perform on Saturday, and brush off all of the negativity:
“I don’t really notice all the negativity,” she said. “No matter how successful I am, there’s always going to be a lot of negativity out there, and I’m just excited to get in there and show that (me not having success on ‘TUF’) wouldn’t have been true.”
Will VanZant be able to prove Herrig wrong, and will this sudden rivalry boil over into an entertaining clash come Saturday?
