Popular UFC Strawweight Paige VanZant may appear in the WWE down the road, but it won’t be at Summerslam as the company had hoped.
VanZant garnered interest from the sports entertainment company after her impressive performance on ABC’s Dancing With The Stars program. Her manager, Mike Roberts of MMA Inc., confirmed to Fox Sports that the WWE had reached out to the 22-year old fighter for a potential appearance on August’s Summerslam pay-per-view event.
As it turns out, the WWE won’t get their wish of having VanZant on the show. The Dancing With The Stars runner-up has been booked against Bec Rawlings for UFC on Fox 21 in Vancouver on August 27. The show is just six days after WWE’s Summerslam. VanZant also passed on the “Kickboxer” reboot sequel to jump back into fighting as well.
“Fighting definitely comes first. 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,” VanZant told ESPN recently. “We couldn’t get a date set that worked with my fight schedule.”
The WWE – UFC crossover has been the heaviest it’s ever been over the past 18 months. Former WWE Champion CM Punk left the company and joined the UFC, and will fight for the first time this September at UFC 203. WWE Superstar Brock Lesnar will appear at UFC 200, and former UFC Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey appeared at WrestleMania 32.
VanZant did say that she’d love to work with the WWE in the future, however.
“Right now, I’m 100 percent fight-focused. 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. I love WWE and if they ever reached out to me again I would love to work with them, but right now I’m focused on Bec Rawlings.”
UFC on Fox 21 takes place August 27, from the Rogers Arena in Vancouver Canada.
