For the first part of the main card preview for UFC 191, I will look at the opening fight of the main card featuring breakout superstar Paige ’12 Gauge’ VanZant (5-1) as she takes on Alex ‘Astro Girl’ Chambers (5-2) in a three round strawweight bout.
VanZant comes into her UFC pay per view debut on the crest of a huge wave of hype and excitement since her fight of the night TKO debut against Hawaiian Kailin Curran last November in Austin, Texas and her unanimous decision beat down of veteran Felice Herrig in April this year in Newark, New Jersey.
Despite having only had two fights in the UFC, Paige has become a massive superstar inside the Octagon and outside of it. In her short UFC career she has elevated from fighting to a relatively small audience on UFC Fight Pass, to the main card of a UFC Fight Night on Fox and now opening up a stacked main card at UFC 191 in Las Vegas. One example of her rising popularity would be her Facebook page that has well over two hundred thousand followers at the moment. Over double that than the current strawweight champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk. She was also given a special Reebok sponsorship deal before the champion Jedrzejczyk was.
For the UFC, she is a potential future goldmine, she is very good on the microphone, she comes across as a very likeable and ordinary character in her interviews but most importantly when it comes to walking the walk, she showed she has that potential in her two impressive wins so far at the UFC. Thanks to the unparalleled success of Ronda Rousey in the bantamweight division, the popularity of Womens MMA has skyrocketed. So much so that the UFC felt confident enough to add the strawweight division to their books. And so far Van Zant has been one of the stars of the division which has led to the divisions overnight success. The video below by FIGHTLAND shows how Paige is just a normal Californian girl following her dream.
Chambers route to UFC 191 has been slightly less glamorous than VanZant’s to say the least. A member of Team Pettis on Season 20 of the Ultimate Fighter which was filmed and aired last year. Chambers lost her only fight on the show against Rose Namajunas via Submission which meant she got minimum airtime to show her fighting potential. She also lost her UFC Debut Fight against Irish UFC Fighter Aisling Daly at the Ultimate Fighter Finale in Las Vegas last December.
‘Astro Girl’ bounced back into the winning column in her home country of Australia in May this year against Kailin Curran, the same woman VanZant made her debut against last November. In a fight which earned Chambers a performance of the night bonus, she capitalised on the overconfidence of Curran, who had been winning up until the third round to submit the Hawaiian via armbar.
Chambers at thirty six years old will have a difficult task ahead of her in the twenty one year old VanZant. Cardio was one thing which Alex seemed to struggle with in her two UFC Fights to date whereas Paige has shown herself to have tremendous cardio in her two UFC fights. Joe Rogan uses the word ‘Swarming’ in the Felice Herrig fight to describe her fighting style. She doesn’t give her opponents the time or place to land anything. Early in the first round of her bout against Herrig, she was in trouble when she was almost finished her by rear naked choke, but Paige remained calm, worked her way out of it and went on to defeat Herrig by a Unanimous Decision, out striking her opponent nearly 2-1 in the process.
I can only see this fight going one way. A second or third round TKO victory for ’12 Gauge’. Her cardio, her overall technical abilities, her training partners at Team Alpha Male, and the confidence coming from overcoming such a massive opponent in Felice Herrig with little ease all add up to an easy win for VanZant for me. For Chambers to do the unlikely, she will need to catch Paige with something big early on before Paige gets her momentum going. I can’t see her out striking, grappling or wrestling VanZant over the three rounds.
Prediction. Paige ’12 Gauge’ Vanzant by TKO.
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