While nursing her recently rebroken arm, Paige VanZant has been tapped to appear in this year’s famed Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
On the Sports Illustrated Instagram account on Thursday, they announced in a video post that VanZant will be appearing in their yearly Swimsuit Issue. The photoshoot is taking place in the beach resort city of Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, located several hours west of Guadalajara. She is the second fighter from the Ultimate Fighting Championship to appear in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue — an honor first claimed by Ronda Rousey in 2016.
In the video, VanZant explained, “I feel like when you’re in Sports Illustrated, that means you make it.” She continued, “So it’s a really big deal, and I’m mostly excited for people to see this side of me. I think people do forget that, yes, I’m a professional fighter, my hair is cornrowed all the time, I punch people in the face for a living…but you can look really cute, too.”
Outside of combat sports, VanZant competed in Season 22 of the “Dancing with the Stars” in 2016, where she and her partner Mark Ballas reached the finals and took second place. She also competed in cooking competition show “Chopped” in 2017, where she won by beating the likes of former NFL star LaMarr Woodley, Olympic fencing gold medalist Mariel Zagunis and Olympic figure skating gold medalist Dorothy Hamill.
VanZant recently fractured her arm while training, the same arm she broke when facing Jessica-Rose Clark at UFC Fight Night 124 in January 2018. Following the loss to Clark, she required multiple surgeries to repair the damage, and the injury sidelined her for just over a year. According to MMAMania.com, this injury is not as severe, as VanZant may be able to return to training sometime in early April.