UFC star Paige VanZant came within touching distance of winning the ‘Dancing With The Stars’ final last night on ABC, but ultimately had to settle for second place.
PVZ had once again been on fire on the dancefloor last night, with her mash-up of jive and salsa alongside dance partner Mark Ballas earning a perfect 30/30 from the judges, while deaf model Nyle DiMarco also scored 30/30 and TV personality Ginger Zee fell off the pace with a 27/30.
Tallying that up with her two dances from the previous night, VanZant had a very impressive overall score of 89/90 from the judges, putting her at the top of the leaderboard in that regard, in front of DiMarco who had 87/90, and Zee who had 85/90.
It’s also worth noting that PVZ actually was the frontrunner when taking into account the judges scoring for the whole season, tallying up a total of 407 points, ahead of DiMarco who had 403.
So, VanZant was clearly the judges favorite, but viewer votes were also taken into consideration, and that resulted in Ginger Zee being awarded third place, with PVZ and DiMarco having to wait an agonizing few extra minutes to discover who would come out on top.
In the end, it was DiMarco who proved to have been the viewers favorite, and combined with his judges scores that was enough for him to just edge out PVZ overall to become the season winner.
“It’s amazing,” VanZant said of coming in second place. “I’m just so thankful I got to have this opportunity, and I’m going to remember it forever.”
With DWTS finally out of the way, MMA fans will be keen to see the 22 year-old get back into the Octagon to continue her fighting career, but there will be media obligations to take care of first, and it’ll be interesting to see if any other opportunities come her way due to her new found fame, with a role in the upcoming ‘Kickboxer: Retaliation’ movie already having been snapped up.
