'Let me remind you': Bareknuckle knockout VanZant posts bikini pics before saying she's 'taking break from social media'

Ahead of her upcoming debut with Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, combat queen Paige VanZant has announced that she is 'taking a break' from social media - but not before posting a few bikini pics to tide her fans over.

VanZant stunned her fans when she signed a deal with the bareknuckle boxing promotion upon the expiration of her UFC contract, as the Sports Illustrated model potentially risks her cover girl good looks in the ultra-aggressive realm of (almost) no-holds-barred boxing. 

'12 Gauge' may make her debut in her new home as soon as November, and ahead of her switching fight codes she has told her 2.7 million Instagram followers that they can expect to see a lot less of the type of skimpy bikini shots that she regularly posts to her social media platforms as she begins to prepare for battle. 

However, VanZant made sure to give fans a little something to remember her by as she posted one last picture of her sunbathing poolside in a pink bikini.

The 26-year-old's MMA record currently stands at 8-5, and shows a record of just one win in her last four contests. However, VanZant's profile outside of the cage has often eclipsed her work inside of it. The aforementioned Sports Illustrated shoot catapulted her to further fame, while a spell as a contestant on 'Dancing with the Stars' showcased her All-American good looks to the type of audience one wouldn't expect to tune into an MMA fight.

Bare Knuckle Fighting Championship, VanZant's new home, are hoping to piggyback on the Florida native's profile after agreeing terms on a bumper fight deal this past summer. Her boxing trainer, Gabriel de Oliveira, told The Sun of how she is helping VanZant transition from mixed martial arts to bare knuckle.

The gloves, as they say, are off.

"We’ll have more time to work with Paige, because she will only fight in November or early next year," she told The Sun. 

"We don’t have the date set yet – but we’ve already seen how she moves. She’s not totally raw. 

"We’ll have to work, add some concepts and change a few concepts she’s carrying over, but I think it’s going to be a smooth transition.

"The most important is that she’s willing to do it. One cool thing about her is that we say something and she does it, she wants to learn, she’s thirsty for knowledge."

Whether or not this quest for knowledge will end up risking VanZant's modelling career remains to be seen - but she says that she isn't concerned by the impact of a few scars on her face.

"A cut on your face always heals. I’ve been cut open before and people still think I’m pretty, and it hasn’t hurt my career yet.

"I feel like at this point, I’ll be paid well enough I can have plastic surgery."