Paige VanZant

Paige Michelle VanZant (born March 26, 1994) is an American mixed martial artist who competes in the Women's Strawweight division of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). A professional competitor since 2012, VanZant was a fighter in Invicta FC before moving over to the Ultimate Fighting Championship. She is currently ranked #8 in the UFC Strawweight division.

Early life

VanZant grew up in Dayton, Oregon. Her parents owned a dance studio, and she was brought up dancing ballet, jazz, and hip hop for over 13 years. As a child, she appeared in a mop commercial for Bissell. VanZant was considered a tomboy while growing up, and loved the outdoors. Her hobbies included riding dirtbikes, fishing, and hunting. In high school, VanZant was regularly bullied by a group of girls. She has noted this experience as one of the reasons she likes being a martial artist and having the ability to defend herself. She has modeled for Nike and Columbia Sportswear. Her father nicknamed her "12 gauge" because of VanZant's love of shooting and hunting.

Paige

Paige may refer to:

Geography:

Other:

Ultimate Fighting Championship

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is a mixed martial arts promotion company. It is the largest in the world and features most of the top-ranked fighters in the sport. Based in the United States, the UFC produces events worldwide that showcase ten weight divisions and abide by the Unified Rules of Mixed Martial Arts. The UFC has held over 300 events to date. Dana White serves as the president of the UFC while brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta control the UFC's parent company, Zuffa, LLC.

The first Ultimate Fighting Championship event was held on November 12, 1993 at the McNichols Sports Arena in Denver, Colorado. The purpose of the early Ultimate Fighting Championship competitions were to identify the most effective martial art in a fight, with minimal rules, between competitors of different fighting disciplines, including boxing, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, Sambo, wrestling, Muay Thai, karate, judo, and other styles. In subsequent competitions, fighters began adopting effective techniques from more than one discipline, which indirectly helped create an entirely separate style of fighting known as present-day mixed martial arts.

Fox UFC

Fox UFC (also referred to as Fox UFC Saturday for broadcasts on Fox or UFC Fight Night for broadcasts on other Fox-owned properties) is the branding used for telecasts of mixed martial art competitions from the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) that are produced by Fox Sports. Previously, UFC on Fox was also used as a blanket title for UFC events aired on the Fox network, although since the concurrent launch of Fox Sports 1 and rebranding of Fuel TV as Fox Sports 2 in August 2013, all live UFC broadcasts on Fox-owned networks (including preliminaries, UFC Fight Night and The Ultimate Fighter Finale) have since used the name.

History

On August 18, 2011, the Ultimate Fighting Championship reached a seven-year broadcast agreement with Fox Sports, giving it the rights to televise matches sanctioned by the promotion through 2018, ending the UFC's relationship with cable channel Spike. Through the agreement, Fox Sports would air four live events per year in either prime time or late night, as well as other UFC programming (including UFC Fight Night, Road to the Octagon and The Ultimate Fighter) on its various broadcast and cable properties, including the Fox network, FX and Fuel TV. The deal was significant as it marked the first time that the Ultimate Fighting Championship would televise its events on broadcast television (previously, the promotion's fight cards were exclusive to cable and satellite networks and pay-per-view).

Ronda Rousey

Ronda Jean Rousey (/ˈraʊzi/ born February 1, 1987) is an American mixed martial artist, judoka, and actress. She is the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. She has won eleven of her fights in the first round, nine of them by armbar. Rousey was the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo (Bronze) at the Summer Olympics in Beijing in 2008. Rousey trains under Gokor Chivichyan of the Hayastan MMA Academy, and Edmond Tarverdyan of the Glendale Fighting Club. In 2015, she was the third most searched person on Google.

As of December 2015, Rousey is ranked the #1 female bantamweight fighter in the world according to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), and #2 by Sherdog and Fight Matrix. Sherdog lists her as the #3 Pound for Pound Women's MMA fighter in the world, while ESPN and Fight Matrix list her #4 female Pound for Pound fighter.

In May 2015, two magazines ranked Rousey as the most "dominant" active athlete. Rousey was voted on an ESPN poll as the Best Female Athlete Ever. In September 2015, she claimed that she is currently the UFC's highest paid fighter, male or female. Rousey's first feature film role was the 2014 film The Expendables 3. In 2015, she had roles in the films Furious 7 and Entourage.