by Serena Winters

Paige VanZant wasn’t always Paige VanZant. Before she was known as a badass in the flyweight division of the UFC, runner-up in Dancing with the Stars or winner on Chopped, she was a freshman in high school, bullied, and looking for a way out.

“I’ll never know why I was a target. It was really a dark hard place for me… I was at my breaking point and I told my dad we have to get out.”

And get out, they did.

The whole family packed up their things and moved to Reno, Nevada, but for Paige, dodging town wasn’t enough.

“I changed my last name. I changed completely who I was. I decided I had to be a completely different person.”

Dropped out of high school and taking classes at a community college in Reno, Paige picked up boxing.

“I was a brand new me. I wasn’t the same person who grew up in Oregon anymore.”

Paige’s new life escalated quickly. She started picking up amateur fights and before she knew it, was offered $2,000 for a pro fight, which her coach advised her not to take.

But if you know Paige, as much as she is tenacious, she is equally stubborn.

So, she took it, and she won.

“That put my name on the map to beat someone who had a very extensive amateur record, and in that moment I was like, I was meant for this. I just knew it.”

Fast forward through agonizing weight cuts, switching fight camps and a broken arm in her most recent fight, which was a loss to Jessica-Rose Clark, VanZant has found her way back home.

“Slowly, but surely, I started to realize that those things that happened to me my freshman year (of high school), they don’t define me.”

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It’s 11:30 AM on a Wednesday, as Paige and I take a seat on a 750-pound tractor tire that was just being thrown around during one of their morning workouts. Paige has just taken off a vest, used to strap her to a rope, which was attached to one of the many tires hanging around the property.

Tire day is commonplace at ‘The Hill,’ a private property in West Linn, run by strength and conditioning coach Dave Shelofsky, that feels almost as much mental sanctuary as it does elite training.

“I feel like we can get so fixated on what’s going on, on social media, or the media part of things, and being out here and hanging out with a good group of people, you just realize how much it doesn’t matter. It’s meaningless. You just have to do what you love, with the people you love.”

Paige takes a moment to take in the greenery, when I ask her about what it’s like to be back training, near the place she grew up. Scanning over the hills, Paige tries to pinpoint spots where she went dirt biking or hunting with her father, which also happens to be the reason for her ’12 Gauge’ fighting nickname.

“I’m a shotgun, I’m hard to handle,” VanZant says with a laugh.

But, behind her bubbly personality, her infectious smile, and her youthful demeanor, there’s still pain behind her eyes. Pain that dates back to her youth.

“There’s that saying that everyone has a chapter of their life that they can’t read outloud….I don’t know if I can physically say the words out loud. If I say it, then its actually real.”

VanZant’s book, Rise: Surviving The Fight Of My Life comes out April 10th.

For more on her book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/paige-vanzant/rise/9780316472265/.