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Paige VanZant has recently come out on her and her husbands blog - A Kickass Love Story about mental health and how she's dealing with her current loss streak. She signed with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship back in 2020 and since is riding a 0-2 fight record wit her last loss July 23rd. Fight fans saw her abruptly leave the arena, which isn't uncommon for a fighter after a big upset loss.
Mike Tyson was just quoted as saying a career in fighting can have you wanting to kill yourself. In the context of him pleading his son to try a different career path. Humans in general all struggle with mental health from time to time. Fighters are especially of no exception. Imagine a career built around either beating people up or getting beaten up. Where your reward depends on how well you can fight. A loss is more than just a bad day at work. It's a permanent mark on your record and all over the internet in seconds for billions of people top see and gossip on.
Paige had some words regarding this on her video blog - “People like me struggle a lot, everybody does. Mental health is no joke and I need to start taking my mental health more seriously. Losses suck and going through hard times it’s not fun but it does get better and you can get through it and life goes on.”
“When I walked out of the ring, I didn’t just walk to my locker room, I literally walked all the way outside and I just went and cried in the parking lot by myself. I said some things to my husband that are pretty terrible about like my mental state. I told him I didn’t want to live anymore, that this wasn’t for me anymore. Like life wasn’t for me anymore so I was disappointed, It was hard."
“Everyone expects me to lose and everyone expects me to fail. I don’t know, I just feel like people have this specific perception of who I am and especially online. It’s crazy how much people can hate on a single person. I just don’t get it. I pride myself of being a good person. I think that’s the most important thing for me. I never talk bad about my opponents. I never say a single negative thing about their character. You never know what somebody’s going through. You never know what someone’s on the verge of.”
We agree with you Paige. You truly never know what someone is going through. People are going to talk crap about you. The more you're known in this world, the more it will happen. We just gotta remember to focus on the fight outside of the ring just as much as the ones inside.