Now that Jessica-Rose Clark is out of the UFC, she would love to run it back with a fellow former octagon competitor in the squared circle.
“I want to rematch Paige VanZant in boxing and I know she’s spoken a lot about wanting to rematch me,” Clark said on The MMA Hour. “I have zero desire to fight bare knuckle. I’m not interested in fighting bare knuckle, but if I can get her to... [and] I know she’s making so much money off her fan sites and everything that I think she needs... I know I’ve seen that she wants to fight again, and I just think it needs to be the right opportunity for her to be excited about it.
“She has mentioned before wanting to rematch me again because I did beat her in the UFC and I think that that could be the opportunity if we get the right promotion behind it, I think it would be a massive fight, honestly.”
In their first meeting, Clark defeated VanZant via unanimous decision at UFC Fight Night 124 in January 2018.
Clark will be competing this Saturday in a Muai Thai bout at Lion Fight 75 against Karen Cedillo, which serves as her first bout since her submission loss to Tainara Lisboa at UFC Charlotte in May.
When asked why she would want to fight VanZant a second time after beating her in their lone meeting, Clark says she wants a big fight that will yield big results for her fighting career, as well as her bank account.
“When I fought her the first time, it was a turning point in my career,” Clark said. “With the reputation she has, the celebrity status that she has, with the fact that she’s a legitimate competitor, I’m a legitimate competitor, I want to make some money. I’ve been doing this for 15 years, and I want to make some money. I’ve been doing this a long time to be fighting for peanuts.
“I think she would want that fight, I want that fight, I want to try my hand in boxing. I’ll fight a boxer, but I’d rather fight an MMA girl for my first fight in boxing and then transition to full-time boxing. I think that would be a cool fight to make.”
Clark hopes to make a full transition into the boxing world after turning the page in her combat story from MMA. Should she have the choice of which promotion she’d love to compete for, one stands out more than the rest.
“Honestly, I would love to fight for MVP,” Clark explained. “I would love to fight for Jake Paul. That’s who I would love to go to. People can say whatever they want about being an influencer boxer, or whatever, but he’s doing big things in boxing right now — especially for women in boxing right now — so that’s who I want to fight for.
“I don’t know him, I don’t know anyone who knows him, so I figure after this muai thai fight, I’ll just start spamming his Instagram.”
