LAS VEGAS -- Paige VanZant has done a lot of things in the last five years, topped by making bags of money with her OnlyFans site. She's fought in the UFC. She took took fights in the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship. She had a fight in Misfits Boxing. She competed in pro wrestling for AEW. She finished second on the reality show "Dancing with the Stars."
She did something on Friday at the swank Fontainebleau Resort that's classed up the north end of the Strip that she hadn't done since Jan. 19, 2019: Win.
VanZant made her surprise debut a successful one at Power Slap 8 on Friday by winning a unanimous decision over Christine Wolmarans by scores of 30-25 on all three judges' cards. She dropped Wolmarans with her final two slaps, but wound up having to take four slaps when she flinched in the third round. When a fighter flinches, the striker has the option of deducting a point from the opponent's score or getting to slap again. Since it was the final slap of the fight, Wolmarans' only choice was to take another slap and try to get a knockout.
That didn't come close to happening as VanZant easily ate the slap and got into the win column for the first time since Jan. 19, 2019, when she defeated Rachel Ostovich at a UFC Fight Night in Brooklyn.
“Honestly, it was absolutely incredible,” VanZant said. “Of course I wanted to knock her out with the first slap, but I’m so happy that it went the way that it did. I knew I could take a punch, I knew I could take a slap. That was really fun.”
VanZant's presence on the card will undoubtedly eventually attract more women into the sport. The sport is growing quickly already and UFC CEO Dana White, who founded Power Slap, went on at length again Friday about how big the sport will become. He related a story from his early tenure running the UFC.
"I said this, go back, and some of you were there and heard me, but I said '[MMA] will be the biggest sport in the world.' But this will be bigger than the UFC," White said of Power Slap. "This will be bigger than the UFC."
White pointed out that UFC strawweight Angela Hill was in Las Vegas for UFC 303, which is on Saturday at T-Mobile Arena, and asked him for a ticket to Power Slap. When it was over, she had a message for White.
"She said, 'I didn't get it before. Now I get it,' " White said, beaming.
VanZant stole the show, drawing attention from both of the title fights on the card as well as the Power Slap debut of Siberian farmer Vasilii "Dumpling" Kamotskii. White was surfing the internet in 2017 and came across a video of Dumpling in a slapping competition. He said he knew instantly that if it were packaged correctly, it would be huge.
Dumpling scored a first-round knockout of Kamil Marusarz after having to change planes four times to get to Las Vegas from Siberia. His win drew a call-out after the show from super heavyweight champion Layne "Da Crazy Hawaiian" Viernes. Viernes won a five-round decision over Danie van Heerden to retain his belt.
The talk after the fight, though, was about VanZant, who left the UFC after her contract expired in 2020 to explore other opportunities. When she started her first adult photo sharing page, she said she was making far more money doing that than she ever had in the UFC.
VanZant and White both said there were no hard feelings and she said she felt like she was back home. But she also wasn't sure there would be a flood of women coming to join her in Power Slap, though she clearly hopes that is the case.
"No women have contacted me with interesting in Power Slap yet; they all think I'm insane for doing this," she said. "Maybe after they saw the way I competed, seeing somebody who was at the highest level in MMA being able to compete very well in this sport, maybe that will entice them to come over."
Results:
Layne "Da Crazy Hawaiian" Viernes W5 Danie van Heerden, 48-44, 47-45, 47-45, to retain the Power Slap super heavyweight title.
Anthony Blackburn W5 Emanuel Muniz, 48-47, 48-47, 47-48, to win the Power Slap welterweight title.
Paige VanZant W3 Christine Wolmarans, 30-25, 30-25, 30-25, bantamweights.
Vasilii "Dumpling" Kamotskii KO1 Kamil Marusarz, super heavyweights.
Vernon Cathey KO2 Austin Turpin, light heavyweights.
Isaih Quinones TKO2 Wesley Drain, middleweights.
Jackie Cataline W by DQ2 Katharina Lehner, two fouls, featherweights.
Duane Crespo W3 Dayne Viernes, super heavyweight.
Courtesy Power Slap
Power Slap founder Dana White congratulates Vasilii "Dumpling" Kamotskii after his first-round KO in his Power Slap debut on Friday in Las Vegas.