Paige VanZant Returning To Power Slap, Competing In October | TMZ Sports
Power Slap's going international for the first time, and they're doin' it with some star power, 'cause TMZ Sports has learned Paige VanZant will compete on October 24 in Abu Dhabi!
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00:00Welcome back to TMZ Sports. Mike Babcock here. Something big is going down. First of all,
00:08Power Slap 9 for the first time. Power Slap going international, going down the same week
00:13as UFC 308 in Abu Dhabi. And they have got a big star who is on this card, none other
00:21than Paige Van Zandt, one of the biggest stars in all of combat sports. Coming back to Power
00:26Slap, Paige, for a second time around. We know Power Slap 8, 30, 25, unanimous decision.
00:34And now you are back on Power Slap 9. How you doing, Paige?
00:38I am doing great. I'm honestly really excited. The first Power Slap I feel like came out
00:43of nowhere. I think I took it on like two weeks notice. This one I obviously get to
00:47like train for. I have the experience now. So I'm extremely excited and I get to go to
00:51Abu Dhabi again. So I couldn't be more of a better experience.
00:57Not a bad perk to get to travel to Abu Dhabi. Is this something when you take the first
01:02one, is this something that you said, I'm going to do again? Or is this, the situation
01:06was right and you said, hey, I had a lot of success the first time around, so let's do
01:09it again.
01:10Yeah. You know, when I took the first one, I was just more of just like, oh, you know
01:13what, whatever. I'll just go do it. It seems fun, exciting. It wasn't something that I
01:18like intended to do long-term or intended to do again. But I had so much fun on the
01:23first one. I was like, holy cow. Yeah, I definitely think I'll do that one more time. I didn't
01:27know that the call would come so soon. But then when they asked me to do, of course,
01:32Abu Dhabi, I've been there one time, but it was during COVID. So I'm excited to go back
01:36and get the full experience.
01:38Now you said you have more time to train. How do you train for a slap fight?
01:43Yeah. So the first one, it was just kind of getting like the nuances and figuring out
01:46the technique on how to like slap somebody. In this one, I'm actually trying to like lift
01:51more and train and get strong for it. And then of course, just again, trying to get
01:59the technique down. It's just a learning process, transitioning from fighting to power slap.
02:05So I'm excited to see like if my changes preparing for this are actually going to do well.
02:11I can just hear all the people, Paige, are going to say, Paige is, you know, she's got
02:15so many other, you know, things going on. Like, why voluntarily say I'm going to get
02:20slapped in the face with, you know, how as the only fans has taken off and all the other
02:24things you've done. So tell people why you are voluntarily going to put yourself at that
02:29podium and you're going to allow somebody else to hit you.
02:32Honestly, it's fun. It's competition experience. The preparation for this just works like hand
02:37in hand with everything that I have going on in my life right now. It's, of course,
02:43training and like, you know, there's preparation to go into power slap. But for this, I don't
02:48have to cut weight. I'm doing it on my current walking around weight. I just feel like it's
02:53a fun experience. And I mean, that's pretty much it. I get to travel to Abu Dhabi for
02:59free. I get to be in the whole UFC umbrella again. So for me, it's a no question.
03:05I get you out of here on this one. It seems like, you know, power slap, it's growing.
03:09It seems like it's doing great on social media. It seems like it's a sport made for
03:15sharing on Twitter and Instagram. Do you really see this thing taking off?
03:20You know what? I know the passion that Dana has behind this and how much he loves it.
03:24Just talking to him about power slap, it excites him like crazy. So I do see this continuing
03:32to be a big thing. I know the numbers that they pull in on social media. I'm sure that's
03:35the reason they were like, you know, thinking like, hey, maybe Paige will do this. I think
03:40it just kind of goes hand in hand with the trend of social media right now, right? It's
03:44like the quick action, get people's attention and it is blowing up on social media. So I
03:51think that this is going to go far. I think you're going to see a lot more people transition
03:55over from other combat sports from other sports worlds that want to do power slap.
03:59I've watched so many videos of the crazy Hawaiian on social media and stuff. I know
04:04he is. He is headlining the card. And now with you on it, this is it's can't miss again.
04:10It's power slap nine. It's free on Rumble. If you can't get out there to Abu Dhabi, like
04:15most people won't be able to. You can all watch for free. Paige, congratulations. Thank
04:19you so much. It was great to talk to you again and go get her.
04:23Thank you so much. Yeah. Nice to see you.