Paige VanZant shares her encounter with an obsessive fan who persistently sent unsettling messages to the ex-UFC star on Instagram daily for four years.
Paige VanZant shares her ordeal with a stalker who harassed her with unsettling messages daily for four years.
Since departing from UFC in 2020, VanZant has carved a niche for herself as a successful influencer, garnering over three million Instagram followers, largely due to her provocative content.
Together with her husband Austin Vanderford, who recently exited Bellator, she forms a dynamic duo in the MMA world. The couple hosts their podcast, Paige and Austin: A Kickass Love Story, where in a recent episode, VanZant recounted a chilling encounter with her stalker during a gym session.
VanZant shared with Vanderford, who was present during the incident at the gym, her encounter with a persistent stalker. She noticed an individual observing her intensely throughout her training session, immediately feeling uneasy about his presence. “I had a stalker, a big time stalker. I’m training and I notice this guy watching me the whole time. Instantly, I got the vibe, ‘this guy is f***ing weird’, staring at me the whole time.”
Vanderford then mentioned he had contemplated approaching the individual. VanZant considered the possibility that the person was simply a fan, potentially nervous about meeting her during the peak of her UFC career. She tried to give him the benefit of the doubt, thinking, “I thought [maybe] he’s a fan so you try to be nice. Of course, people can be nervous. The prime of my UFC career, maybe he’s just a fan and was nervous.”
“He comes over and starts talking to me. He’s like, ‘Hey, how are you? I’m so happy to meet you or I’m so happy that we’re together’. I was like, ‘Oh, okay’. I was like, ‘What’s your name?’. He was, ‘It’s blah blah blah, we’ve been talking on Instagram for years’. I was like, ‘What?’.”
Upon identifying the man, VanZant decided to investigate further and looked up his profile. What she found was startling:
“I go in the back [of the gym] and open the messages. He has been messaging every single day. At least 10 to 20 messages for the last four years. Every day he would message and message and message about how we’re meant to be together.”
