Felice Herrig is not over her 2015 loss to Paige VanZant.
“Lil’ Bulldog” suffered her first official defeat under the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) banner against “12 Gauge.” The bout was on the main card of a UFC on FOX event in Newark, New Jersey.
After defeating strawweight prospect Alexa Grasso last Saturday night, Herrig turned her attention to a rematch with VanZant and a bout with Michelle Waterson.
Herrig recently appeared on MMAJunkie Radio to explain why another crack at VanZant is so intriguing for her:
“A lot of people, like the casual MMA fans, they didn’t follow my career before the UFC. They just saw me in the UFC. So when I fought Paige and I lost to her, they think that I lost to her and that was me in there just getting outschooled and outclassed, but it wasn’t. That’s why I took time off, it’s because I medically was not capable of fighting. Something happened in there where I just couldn’t move, my body couldn’t move. It was a very scary thing, and I didn’t know what was happening. I feel like that fight – it happened, unfortunately – but I feel like it never happened, because Paige didn’t fight me. So I want her to fight me at my best and then see, ‘Now, who is the better fighter?’ And I believe it’s me. And it’s my only loss in the UFC and I do want that fight again, because I do have something to prove. And I think that I’ve made a strong case for it.”
Herrig has gone 7-2 in her last nine bouts. She has submitted two of her opponents in that stretch. While “Lil’ Bulldog” is coming off a pivotal win in her career, VanZant suffered a quick submission loss to Waterson just two months ago.
