Fighter Paige VanZant, who now competes in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, admitted recently that she was struggling with her mental health.
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Former UFC fighter Paige VanZant, who now competes in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC), admitted recently that she was struggling with her mental health. VanZant suffered a second straight BKFC loss to former UFC fighter Rachael Ostovich last month. After the match, she exited the ring quickly and copped plenty of criticism for it.
She has now revealed why she chose to do so and also opened up on her mental health issues.
“When I walked out of the ring, I didn’t just walk to my locker room. I literally walked all the way outside and I just went and cried in the parking lot by myself,” VanZant said in a video.
She further added that she told her husband that she didn’t want to live anymore. “I said some things to my husband that are pretty terrible about like my mental state.
“I told him I didn’t want to live anymore, that this wasn’t for me anymore. Like life wasn’t for me anymore so I was disappointed. It was hard.”
But it isn’t just her new fight career that is causing such a struggle for her. VanZant also revealed that being repeatedly targetted for online abuse takes its toll.
“Everyone expects me to lose and everyone expects me to fail. I don’t know, I just feel like people have this specific perception of who I am and especially online.
“It’s crazy how much people can hate on a single person. I just don’t get it.”
She further added that she has never chosen to badmouth her opponents ahead of fights.
“I pride myself on being a good person and I think that’s the most important thing for me. I never talk bad about my opponents and I never say a single negative thing about their character.
“You never know what somebody’s going through. You never know what someone’s on the verge of.”
