VanZant willing to fight at flyweight or strawweight, hopes for June return
Paige VanZant recently had the cast removed from her right arm and is hoping to fight in June despite the uncertainty caused by the coronavirus.
"The goal was for me to compete in May, (but) I do think that would be me pushing it," VanZant told theScore. "I really feel like this whole downtime forced me to slow down and really re-evaluate my arm ... and made it so I can't jump into full-time training 100%. It's going to be a while (to fight) with the way the world is, which is great - I feel like we need to take care of the world first because that's the most important thing.
"In June, once fights start back up again, I really do think I'll be ready 100%. I'm kind of easing into it and making sure I don't go hurt myself again."
VanZant (8-4) was scheduled to fight Amanda Ribas at UFC Brasilia in March but was forced to withdraw after fracturing her arm a third time. The 26-year-old also underwent a third surgery on her arm last June and hasn't competed since her submission victory over Rachael Ostovich at UFC Brooklyn in January 2019.
After fighting Ostovich at flyweight and having spent the majority of her career in the strawweight division, VanZant says she's open to competing in both weight classes.
"Initially the plan was strawweight," she explained. "I still feel confident about going back down to strawweight. The hard thing, though, is I feel like I'm an in-betweener. I can fight at (115 pounds) or (125 pounds) and that's what I told the UFC. I just want the fight that makes sense for the division. And whoever they want me to fight, I just want it to be exciting and a good fight at either 115 pounds or 125 pounds. I really have no preference."
With fighters waiting for the UFC to determine the fates of future events, the former "Dancing with the Stars" contestant believes this hiatus could lead to more exciting matchups down the road.
"I think a lot of fighters are going to be able to have this time off to heal and be ready to compete, which is super exciting," VanZant said. "I think it'll open the door up for some more exciting fights. I don't know who's going to be ready. So we'll see what the UFC says.
"I hope I get a really exciting fight to come back and fight on. I'm coming off of an armbar win, which is huge and super exciting. So we'll see what they say."
Look for the full video interview with VanZant next week on theScoreMMA podcast. In the meantime, subscribe to our Youtube channel here.