Paige VanZant finished second place on last night’s final episode of ABC’s ‘Dancing With The Stars’, and the good news for fight fans is that the up and coming female strawweight star is already setting her sights on a return to the Octagon.
“You know what? I feel like I have a fire lit underneath me right now,” VanZant told MMAJunkie.com. “I’m ready to get back in the cage and fight again. I’ve been away from my home and the UFC way too long, so I’m excited to get a fight.”
Before that, the 22 year-old has an acting role in the upcoming movie, ‘Kickboxer: Retaliation’ which she’ll be filming in Thailand next month, but PVZ plans to start training for her next fight while she’s over there.
“I’m going to take my fight camp over to Thailand for a little while. It’s a very short filming, just a few days, and the rest of it I’ll be using as a fight camp. I’m bringing a trainer to Thailand and we’re just going to focus and get ready for a fight, because I’m ready to get back in there.”
VanZant lost her fight, succumbing to a second round rear-naked choke against Rose Namajunas back in December, but despite that performance showing that she still has a lot of work to do to catch up with the division’s best, she’s champing at the bit to get back to business and show what she’s capable of.
“It’s up to the UFC, but I want to get back in there as soon as possible. I think my manager’s going to say, ‘Hey, we might want to train first.’ But I’m ready, and I miss the UFC.”
