Paige VanZant returns to UFC after ‘Dancing with the Stars’

Many viewers of the last season of “Dancing with the Stars” might have been surprised to learn the runner-up with the glamorous looks and smile custom-made for the red carpet was a cage fighter by trade.

If they saw Paige VanZant’s last fight in the UFC in December, they might be surprised that she wants to continue to fight when so many other opportunities have popped up since the show’s conclusion.

But VanZant said there was never a doubt she would be back in the cage.

“I do it because I love it,” she said by phone from Vancouver, British Columbia, where she will fight Bec Rawlings on the main card of UFC on Fox 21 on Saturday. “I’ve said that from the beginning, and I’m very excited that I’m back here and I get to do this again.”

There wasn’t much to enjoy in her last fight before she took a break to film “Dancing with the Stars.” VanZant had her four-fight winning streak snapped in a women’s strawweight contender bout when she was pummeled for more than 20 minutes before Rose Namajunas mercifully choked her out midway through the fifth round.

VanZant, a 22-year-old Sparks resident, was sad and bloody, but her resolve to be a champion was not broken.

“You learn a lot (from a fight like that),” VanZant said. “You have to adjust. You learn where you need to improve and things you need to maybe take out of your game. It was a great learning experience. Of course, I would’ve rather won. But I’m going to take a lot from it and move forward, and I’m definitely ready for this fight on Saturday.”

She knows she probably picked up some new fans who watched her perform on the dance floor. She already was gaining fame as one of the UFC’s more popular fighters before “Dancing with the Stars.”

“It’s definitely new,” she said of her level of fame outside the sport. “It’s still so weird to me to even have fans at all. That seems funny. But it’s really cool. I can definitely tell it brought over a new group of fans, which is awesome. Hopefully that will be great for the UFC, because new people will watch. But other than that, I feel like I’m just the same person training for a fight.”

That means preparing for Rawlings, an Australian who competed on “The Ultimate Fighter” and has won two consecutive bouts since dropping her UFC debut.

“She’s a veteran,” VanZant said. “I watched her fights in Invicta and ‘TUF.’ She’s got a good boxing background and is a great opponent for me, but I’m ready to go in there and get the win.”

She fell just short of that goal with her second-place finish on “Dancing with the Stars.” Still, VanZant opened plenty of doors in Hollywood should she want to pursue a less physical way of making money.

“Doing the show only solidified my passion (for MMA) because I couldn’t wait to come back to fight,” said VanZant, who recently turned down a movie role because it conflicted with her training for this fight. “But at the same time, I definitely want to do more things like that.

“It was so much fun. But for me, fighting is my job. I love it. I just love fighting. At the same time, I am going to take advantage of other opportunities as long as they fit in my fight schedule. We’ll just see what comes up.”

Despite the setback against Namajunas and the speculation about Hollywood, the future is still bright for VanZant inside the cage.

She had almost worked her way into the top five in the official UFC rankings before the loss and is among the youngest fighters on the organization’s roster.

The bout is part of a main card headlined by a welterweight contender bout between Carlos Condit and Demian Maia that will air on Fox at 5 p.m. Four fights from the preliminary card will air on the network at 3.

Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj