Paige VanZant

I gave up school. I gave up a really, really good job. I gave up a lot of stuff. I cut a lot of people out of my life so I could just focus on my fighting dreams.

There's a lot of girls out there that can relate to me. They can look at me and see themselves a little bit. There's a lot of girls out there that have a tougher side to them. I just think that people are really grown and attracted to that, and that's why people like to see me fight.

When I'm training, I cater a little bit to my opponents.

Honestly, at times, I still get bored. 'Dancing with the Stars' kept me busy, and that's what I like. When I first started fighting, I was working two jobs, and I was still going to school at the same time while training. I'm meant to be a busy person.

I was in culinary school for a little while, but it was just too hard to cut weight and cook at the same time.

Sometimes the media twists your words, and they say things to get a headline, and it's not necessarily what came out of your mouth, and they take things out of context 90 percent of the time. But I guess - any publicity is good publicity, I guess.

I definitely want to be an inspiration or a role model for all the little girls out there or anyone out there that wants to break stereotypes. I feel like I'm breaking stereotypes with what I'm doing. I'm not the typical fighter, and there's a lot of people out there that won't do something just because they don't fit the stereotype.

You have to try to grow between every fight: get back in the gym and keep working hard and find the areas that you need to work on. See what you did wrong and work on it.