Paige VanZant penalized for illegal strike, second Power Slap match ends in a draw
Paige VanZant didn’t get the result she wanted in her second appearance in Power Slap after the UFC and BKFC veteran was penalized for an illegal blow in the second round in her match against Chelsea Dodson.
The 30-year-old combat sports star, who made her slap fighting debut back in June with a unanimous decision win, ended up going to a draw with Dodson — wife to former UFC title contender John Dodson — after she was deducted a point for “clubbing,” which is defined as “any strike other than a permitted slap to the permitted target area.”
In this case, VanZant delivered a shot where more of her arm connected with Dodson’s face than her hand, which resulted in a penalty being assessed.
The one-point deduction put VanZant in a tough position to either deliver a knockdown or a knockout in order to win the bout in the third round. Neither of those things happened, although VanZant did win both the first and third rounds on the scorecards.
Dodson took that with EASE
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Unfortunately the point deduction in the second round cost VanZant the match after both she and Dodson stayed standing following each blow delivered during the match. The final tally was 28-28 across all three scorecards with the bout declared a draw.
Paige shook that off ️
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VanZant didn’t speak directly after the match, although she said after her Power Slap debut in June that she definitely planned on competing there again in the future.
“Kind of going into it was like, ‘I only have to do this one time, a bucket list thing, I want to go do Power Slap, prove that I can,’” VanZant told MMA Fighting in July after her debut. “But then afterward it was like, ‘Shoot, that was really fun.’”
It remains to be seen if Thursday’s match could lead to another VanZant appearance in Power Slap.