UFC Star Paige VanZant Returns To Reality Television With An Appearance On ‘Chopped’

Getty Image

UFC up and comer Paige VanZant returns to television tonight, but it won’t be in a cage. Instead, the 23-year-old rising star will appear on yet another competition reality show: The Food Network’s Chopped, which is in the middle of a special run of celebrity episodes.

The concept behind Chopped is pretty simple: four contestants create an appetizer, main course, and dessert focused around a list of ingredients the show provides. The catch? There’s usually a pretty disgusting ingredient added in there like goat brains or haggis or emu eggs. So it’s basically the Fear Factor of cooking shows, except the cooks need to make the potentially disgusting ingredients work well together for the judges.

https://twitter.com/PaigeVanzantUFC/status/846861609116983296

Paige will be joined by Olympic figure skater Dorothy Hamill, Olympic fencer Mariel Zagunis, and NFL linebacker LaMarr Woodley in her episode, which airs at 10 PM EST on The Food Network. And while she may not have the Olympic medals or Super Bowl rings of her competition, she does have reality show experience and success as last season’s runner-up on Dancing With The Stars.

As for when VanZant fights again, there’s no set date. After winning a fight last August against Bec Rawlings via a picture perfect switch kick, she fell to the very tough Michelle Waterson in December. That means she’s due back in the cage soon … if her increasingly busy schedule of Hollywood endeavors doesn’t get in the way.