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Featured Image Credit: Getty Images & Paige VanZant/Instagram
Topics: Paige Vanzant, UFC
Daniel Marland
Topics: Paige Vanzant, UFC
Paige VanZant is one of the most popular female sports stars on the planet - but she used to be called something different.
VanZant signed with the UFC in 2013 and made her name as a promising strawweight fighter.
She moved up to the flyweight division in 2017 but failed to capture championship gold.
The 29-year-old shocked everyone in 2020 by departing the promotion to sign a four-fight deal with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship.
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VanZant was beaten by Britain Hart in her debut and later lost to Rachael Ostovich, leaving her bare-knuckle record at 0-2.
After a brief stint in professional wrestling with All Elite Wrestling, VanZant turned her hand to OnlyFans and claims to be making more money from the subscription service and Instagram than she did inside the Octagon.
She told Barstool Sports in an interview earlier this year: "Yes, OnlyFans has been my largest source of income, I would say combined in my fighting career, I think I’ve made more money in 24 hours on OnlyFans than I have in my entire fighting career.
"I would say when I made the switch to OnlyFans... there’s a lot of stuff I’ve done in my career... I’ve been fortunate that my career even outside of the UFC and outside of fighting has been pretty successful."
VanZant later added: "I've worked pretty hard in other industries and trying to crossover to like I guess a more of a mainstream personality.
"But yes, OnlyFans has been my largest source of income. I would say combined in my fighting. I think I made more money in 24 hours on OnlyFans than I had in my entire fighting career."
What even VanZant's biggest fans might not know is her real second name isn't actually VanZant.
The Oregon native was born with the name Paige Sletten. As a student, she was the victim of a rape in her hometown.
Per CBS Sports, she was 'mercilessly bullied' by other students when rumours spread she'd had consensual sex with the boys.
Classmates started to call her 'Paige Slutton', leading to the name change.
She decided on VanZant after hearing it at one of her mother's PE lessons. It was the name of one of her students, so she decided to adopt it as her own.