Newly signed Paige VanZant credits Ken Shamrock for early MMA roots

[The Great Cochrane]

115 pound Paige "12 Gague" VanZant was originally scheduled to be in the UFC's latest season of The Ultimate Fighter which will crown the very first women's straw-weight championship and will be coached by UFC Lightweight Champion Anthony Pettis and former Strikeforce Champion Gilbert Melendez. However, she did not meet the minimum age requirement and instead got a direct bid in the UFC.

Guess it does pay to be young, eh?

The newly signed VanZant took some time to speak with the MMA Hour, in which she admitted that Ken Shamrock was one of the reasons she had such great development for her career.

He was there the whole time. He was our head coach so it was really awesome. I had a few boxing fights before I did MMA and he went to all of them. He was a really, really big support for the first part of my career. I am still in touch with his family.

“He [my dad] was a huge fan of Ken Shamrock, so when we went out to Reno and he wanted me to a gym, I ended up falling in love with it. Ken [Shamrock] said I had a lot of potential, and I ended up just really liking punching people in the face.

No opponent has been announced VanZant yet, but you can be sure that the 20 year old team Alpha Male prospect will definitely be sure to make a splash.

Author: Alex Cochrane
Source: BJPenn.com
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Coming from a girl that looks like this?!

DAMN! :love_heart: She just replaced Felice Herrig as my MMA love!

But if she comes from Team Alpha Male, Urijah's probably already hit it lol.