VanZant entered the national consciousness inside the UFC strawweight division in 2014. She brought aggressive grappling, relentless pacing, and natural charisma to the cage, compiling an 8, 5 professional mixed martial arts record. Yet the rigid economic realities of standard mixed martial arts contracts quickly pushed her to test alternative entertainment avenues. A runner-up finish on ABC's Dancing with the Stars in 2016 offered a first glimpse of her mainstream commercial draw outside the cage.
Her departure from the UFC in 2020 marked a definitive break from legacy promotion structures. She signed a multi-fight deal with the Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship (BKFC) worth a reported $1 million, demonstrating that combat sports veterans could command major paydays on open markets. Even so, the sheer physical toll of bare-knuckle fighting prompted VanZant to build equity channels that did not depend entirely on taking damage inside a ring.
By the time Playboy Sweden approached her creative team for their late 2025 issue, VanZant operated less like a contract prizefighter and more like a standalone media brand. The cover shoot was positioned not merely as an athlete novelty, but as a deliberate European high-fashion shoot highlighting an athletic physique honed over a decade of elite training.
