Paige VanZant Preparing For UFC Return After Frustrating Layoff
Paige VanZant preparing to make her return to the Octagon under the UFC banner after being out of action for quite some time. VanZant is coming off her latest surgery as she continues to recover in order to have her sights set on returning.
VanZant showed off her toughness in her fight with Jessica-Rose Clark in the co-main event of UFC St. Louis (Fight Night 124) at Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri. She walked away with a unanimous decision loss to Clark.
She had surgery shortly after the flyweight contest for a broken arm. It was later revealed that the healing process wasn’t going well, which ultimately led to her having a second procedure.
This was done to make a complete recovery and forced her to be in a four-hour operation. During this surgery, the doctors had to take bone fragments were taken from the hip and moved to the arm.
Paige VanZant Ready To Compete
In a recent interview, VanZant stated that seeing the other fighters in her division progress in their careers makes her jealous. However, that has forced her to have a lot of aggression.
“It makes me really jealous,” VanZant told MMAjunkie. “I have a lot of built-up energy and aggression right now, so he gets to take all of that. It’s really fun.”
This isn’t the first time that she has had a break as she did it back in 2016. At the time, it was her decision to do so to compete on “Dancing with the Stars.” With this break not being her choice, it was a different experience.
“This one was different because it wasn’t by choice,” VanZant said. “And having something this important taken away from you. And be told that you kind of just have to sit and watch is awful.”
The good news for the prospect is the fact that she has been cleared to train once again for cardio purposes. Now, she hopes to be cleared to go into full-on training that includes striking.
“And what made it even worse is I kind of anticipated like a typical surgery and a typical timeline for that. I thought I would be back training in eight weeks, and it’s been nine months. And two surgeries and then hip surgery that will help, like, fix the arm. So it’s been a very long process that I didn’t anticipate having to go through.”
