'Dancing With the Stars' Cast: Paige VanZant Talks What's 'A Little Scary' About The Competition [VIDEO]
Even if Paige VanZant has the experience of physically training as a UFC fighter, Dancing With the Stars is a whole other animal altogether.
VanZant is one of the 11 remaining celebrities on Dancing With the Stars, and has largely separated herself from most of the pack. Her latest dance received a 24 out of 30 from the judges, the highest of the night.
The UFC fighter has worked hard to become a contender on DWTS, and this is also while there's been complications with her partner, Mark Ballas. Before last week's dance, Ballas suffered a back injury that rendered him unable to dance, so Alan Bersten had to step in and dance with VanZant.
VanZant spoke with Mario Lopez recently about her past with dancing and how DWTS has been an adjustment.
"It is completely different. I did grow up dancing. I stopped in middle school to focus more on cheerleading," she said with a laugh. "But I never did ballroom. And that's the thing that was really kind of a little scary for me, is actually having to touch another person and dance with them instead of against them. With fighting I'm against somebody so that's definitely been weird and then having to trust my partners to lift me, having to trust them to not step on me it's definitely different!"
Meanwhile, Ballas has not yet been cleared by doctors to compete in tonight's episode, so Bersten may have to step in and dance with VanZant again.
Luckily, the extent of Ballas' injury is not critical, though he still needs to check in with doctors before he is able to dance again.
"They cleared me," he told E! News on Friday. "There's no fracture, thank god, but there is something other things going on that we're just being careful of." Balla has been attending rehearsals, where Bersten has been practicing with VanZant.
"We're tag-teaming...I've been shadowing and figuring it out as we go...I'm getting in there, but I'm not doing it 100 yet," Ballas said.
Dancing With the Stars airs Mondays at 8 p.m. ET/PT on ABC.
