We now know who Paige VanZant will be facing in her BKFC debut.
VanZant will be making her highly-anticipated bare-knuckle debut on February 5. She’ll be a headliner for BKFC’s Knucklemania PPV event. It’ll take place inside the RP Funding Center in Lakeland, Florida.
The opponent for VanZant will be Britain Hart, BKFC announced. Hart last competed at BKFC 14 on November 13. She stopped Randine Eckholm via fourth-round TKO.
David Feldman, the president told MMAFighting.com that Hart was the right choice for VanZant’s promotional debut.
“Britain’s a real tough girl – she’s skilled, but she’s not the best technical boxer in the world. Paige isn’t going to have to chase her down. It’s going to be competitive, but I think it’s going to be a good opponent choice for Paige on her first event.
“[Paige is] getting paid very well, and I don’t think we could have thrown her somebody that never fought bare-knuckle before, or at least someone that had a pretty well-established record. I don’t think the fans would have liked that. We’re going to give the fans what they want.”
This will be VanZant’s first fight since her last UFC appearance. She suffered a first-round submission loss to Amanda Ribas via armbar.