After a split draw in her return to competitive combat sports Saturday, Paige VanZant appears to be on board with a rematch later this year against Elle Brooke.
Brooke retained her Misfits Boxing middleweight title in the MF & DAZN: X Series 15 main event at NRG Arena in Houston. Brooke and VanZant each got a 48-46 score in the five-round fight. A third judge scored the bout a 47-47 draw.
While the talk immediately after the fight was on a potential rematch in Dubai, on Sunday VanZant posted on social media an August timeline for a rematch – but on Brooke’s U.K. home turf at The O2 in London, which Misfits Boxing reposted.
Separately, VanZant said she’ll be moving forward planning on a second fight with Brooke, who dropped her in the first round and landed several other big punches in the fight.
“Obviously, we didn’t get the result that we predicted last night,” VanZant said in a video posted to Instagram. “I really thought that I did enough at the end. My whole team thought we did enough. I think a lot of people did. The judging: a little bit nuts.
“But it looks like it sets up the perfect rematch. I’ve just got to go on her turf and take the belt there. So I’ll see all of you guys in London. … I’m just waiting for the bruise to heal, but should be back to camp and I’m excited. Let’s do this one more time.”
The fight was VanZant’s first combat sports outing since a unanimous decision loss in a bareknuckle boxing bout against Rachael Ostovich at BKFC 19 in July 2021. Although she has been competitive in her last four outings across MMA, boxing and bareknuckle, VanZant has not won a fight since she submitted Ostovich in January 2019 in the UFC.
Brooke is a social media influencer and OnlyFans model who crossed over into boxing. VanZant took the opposite route, but has said in recent months that she made more money in 24 hours on OnlyFans than she did in her entire UFC career, which spanned nine fights over around six years.
