UFC Hall of Famer opens up about training Paige VanZant when she was a bullied teen: "She had no self confidence"
A UFC Hall of Famer recently opened up about his experience training Paige VanZant and recounted their first meeting. He noted that it was during a difficult period in her life and explained the importance of what was being taught.
Ken Shamrock was one of the top fighters in the world during his prime and achieved a great deal of success during his Hall of Fame career. With that in mind, it's logical why his success and skillset would attract others to learn from him.
While speaking to VladTV, 'The World's Most Dangerous Man' opened up about first meeting '12 Gauge' when she was a teenager that was being bullied. Shamrock recounted VanZant coming to his gym with her parents and mentioned that he made it clear that he would train her only for the right reasons. He said:
"She had no self confidence. She was beat down, it seemed like everybody was picking on her...It felt like she was one of those kids that was an easy target because she allowed them to do it...The first thing I told her was that, 'I'm not teaching this so that you can go out and get revenge on people. I'm teaching this so you have self confidence so that you don't have to go out and fight anybody but you could protect yourself.'" [0:25 - 1:01]
Check out Ken Shamrock's comments below:
UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock describes his reaction to Paige VanZant expressing interest in an MMA career
In addition to opening up about training Paige VanZant when she was a bullied teen, Ken Shamrock described his reaction when she first expressed interest in pursuing an MMA career approximately two years after training with him.
During the aforementioned conversation, Shamrock mentioned that he would have preferred if VanZant took a gradual approach and explained his reasoning why he didn't want her to rush into an MMA career. He said:
"I told her, 'No'. I said, 'I want to wait. If you're gonna fight, I think you've got a future...but I would rather for you to wait until you finish high school and if this is something you wanna do, we'll start gradually building you into this'...She chose to go in a different direction and she asked. It wasn't like there was an issue...but if she wanted to go somewhere else to do that, she has my blessing." [1:11 - 1:46]
Check out Paige VanZant's post fight interview following her win over Bec Rawlings at UFC on FOX 21 below: