When Paige VanZant made it all the way to the finals of ‘Dancing With The Stars’ recently there were fears that her newfound success would distract her from her career in fighting, but it turns out that’s far from being the case.
In fact, it’s now emerged that PVZ has actually decided not go proceed with a small role in the upcoming ‘Kickboxer: Retaliation’ movie that was expected to begin filming this summer.
“Fighting definitely comes first,” the 22 year-old VanZant told ESPN yesterday. “I’ve recently declined to be in the ‘Kickboxer’ movie because I want to be 100 percent for this fight and train 100 percent, and filming that movie was kind of going to get in the way. We couldn’t get a date set that worked with my fight schedule.”
PVZ also confirmed that she’s ruled out an offer to appear at WWE SummerSlam as well as she refocuses on fighting ahead of her newly announced return to the Octagon against Bec Rawlings at UFC On FOX 21 in August.
“Right now I’m 100-percent fight-focused and I would love to participate in anything the WWE has to offer when the timing’s right as long as it works with my fight schedule,” VanZant said. “I love WWE and if they ever reached out to me again I think I would definitely love to work with them but right now I’m focused on Bec Rawlings.”
This seems like a sensible decision for VanZant. Pursuing other opportunities may have led to some short-term gain, but in the longer term her best chance of solidifying her star status is to focus on the path that put her on the map in the first place.
Also, VanZant’s loss to Rose Namajunas back in December proved that while she has raw talent, she’s got a long way to go before she’s a well-rounded MMA fighter who can compete against the best of the best, so there’s no time like the present to start the process of reaching her ful potential.
