Get Facial Scars, Become More Attractive?

Former Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Strawweight, Paige VanZant, is gearing up to make her highly-anticipated bare knuckle boxing debut when she takes on Britain Hart on Feb. 5 at the upcoming Bare Knuckle FC KnuckleMania event.

And she is doubling down on her stance that she isn’t afraid of getting cut open by her opponent’s bare knuckles. In fact, the ex-Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model says stats shows that scars make you a bit more attractive.

“I think the hard thing is the regular fan, not necessarily educated in martial arts or educated in the medical field. They see blood and immediately see it as a terrible injury,” VanZant told MMA Fighting. “Whereas for me, I would much rather be cut open than break my arm or break my knuckle or tear my shoulder or tear my knee.

“Those are all things that take a very long time to heal whereas a laceration, I got cut in my face in one fight — one you can barely tell, and two I heard statistically that scars make you more attractive. It’s not a big deal. Those heal and you just continue on. Faces heal really well, your body heals itself really well.”

Take that, haters.

VanZant has earned numerous opportunities outside of the cage such as the aforementioned Sports Illustrated Swimsuit cover, a stint on “Dancing with the Stars” and various other high-profile photo shoots. But potential scars to the face possibly scaring sponsors or future opportunities away don’t seem to bother VanZant.

Despite her move to BKFC, Paige doesn’t rule out future mixed martial arts (MMA) fights since her contract allows her to continue to fight in the sport that helped make her a household name.