With VanZant sidelined due to refractured arm, who’s next for ’12 Gauge’?
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UFC flyweight Paige VanZant suffered an arm fracture, during her fight with Jessica-Rose Clark in January 2018. VanZant fractured her arm while throwing a spinning back fist during the second round of the fight.
Per MMA Fighting, after the second round, both fighters went to their respective corners and VanZant told her coach about the injury. She told her coach that she thought she might’ve fractured her arm when landing the spinning back fist on Clark. VanZant’s corner decided not to throw in the towel because they were unsure about the injury. Also, VanZant wanted to get back out there and fight. During the third round, one of VanZant’s coaches noticed that she wasn’t throwing her right hand anymore, which seemed unusual. Also, she wasn’t defending submission attempts the way they had previously trained.
VanZant underwent surgery to heal the fracture and she was sidelined by the injury for the remainder of 2018. By late 2018, she was eyeing a fight in the flyweight division and in negotiations. The UFC announced a fight between PVZ and Rachael Ostovich for the ESPN debut card in Brooklyn, New York.
After UFC Brooklyn, PVZ went right back to training. She decided to spar since she knew she was unable to train due to her husband’s (Austin Vanderford) Bellator debut. PVZ claimed on Instagram Live that when she landed an elbow on her teammate, she instantly dropped to the floor in pain, reinjuring her arm. Unable to help Vanderford for his upcoming fight, PVZ was sidelined and headed to multiple doctor’s visits before and after her Sports Illustrated photoshoot.
One of the next questions is, who will be her next opponent in the Octagon? PVZ looks to make her return this summer after doctor’s confirmed the arm is fractured and surgery is not required.
Well, there are a couple names that have been floating around lately. At first, VanZant was vocal about wanting to get a rematch with Jessica-Rose Clark. She spoke about how difficult it is to handle defeat. Especially considering that the loss to Clark was her first decision loss in the UFC and she fractured her arm. It isn’t crazy to believe that she might feel like, had she not gotten injured during the fight, the judges may have gone her way. With that being said, I believe it is a possibility that we see the two of them run that fight back this summer.
There are a few more potential opponents for Van Zant right now. One, being Poliana Botelho. There were rumors going around about a potential fight in the works for UFC 236, which would’ve been either VanZant vs Botelho or VanZant vs Montana De La Rosa. Either one of those match-ups would be a step up in competition for VanZant. They would also be rather big fights for her, in terms of moving up the ranks of the flyweight division.
De La Rosa is 10-4 in her professional career, having gone 4-0 in her last four fights, three of which were in the UFC. De La Rosa has a perfect record of 3-0 in the UFC right now, with all three of those wins coming by way of submission. De La Rosa is a very game opponent at 125-pounds and I think she would make a good fight for “12 Gauge,” upon her return to the Octagon.
Botelho is 7-2 in her professional career, having gone 2-0 in UFC, up until her most recent loss to Cynthia Calvillo, back in November 2018. Six of her seven MMA wins have come by way of knockout. It’s unclear what the UFC was trying to do when they thought up a VanZant vs Botelho fight because Paige has previously voiced issues with weight cutting. That is why she has since moved up to the flyweight division. A fight with Botelho would be a good match-up for her and a good fight for the fans. Although it is unclear whether or not VanZant would be willing to cut weight to compete in the strawweight division again. Either way, Botelho is already scheduled to fight Lauren Mueller at UFC 236 in April. So if VanZant did want to move back to strawweight, we likely wouldn’t see the two of them in the Octagon for a couple of months at least.
All in all, we will just have to wait and see what happens. PVZ might need some more time to heal and fully come back from her refracture. Then, I’m sure there will be negotiation stages to see who her next opponent will be. If I had to guess right now, I can say, with confidence, that VanZant’s next opponent will be Montana De La Rosa, later on this Summer.
In the meantime, let’s all wish PVZ a speedy recovery.
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