MMA fighter Paige VanZant has shared details about how she was gang-raped in high school when she was just 14 and how the incident nearly led her to commit suicide.
In her new book titled "Rise: Surviving the Fight of My Life," VanZant recounted how she was bullied as a teenager and how she ended up being sexually assaulted by other students in her high school in Oregon.
The women's flyweight fighter revealed that on the night of the incident, several boys got her drunk at a party before they assaulted her.
"They move me around. They change my position. I fail each time I try to resist, my limbs like wet cement on my body, my brain a heavy fog. I am awake and conscious, but my body feels dead. I know what is happening but can do nothing to stop it. I have no voice or choice but to submit and pray that it ends soon," VanZant said.
VanZant, who frequently posts Bible verses on social media, explained that the details of the incident were written by a ghost writer, but she maintained that it was "exactly what I wanted to say to a person, they wrote it down and then I never had to look at it again."
The MMA fighter did not disclose whether her assailants were charged with the crime. She said that the bullying she experienced got worse after rumors circulated that she had consensual sex with the boys.
VanZant, who was born Paige Sletten, noted that she had to change her name because other students started calling her "Paige Slutton." She recalled a time when she came home and found condoms hanging from the trees around her house.
She noted that she became so afraid of other students that she had to eat her lunch in the bathroom.
In a recent interview with ABC News, she recounted that the bullying left her feeling so alone that she contemplated taking her own life.
"When you're in that position, when you're feeling that much pain, it's not that you want to die. You just don't want to be in pain anymore," she said.
VanZant, who won her first UFC fight at age 20, explained that the incident completely changed her, but martial arts helped her gain control.
The fighter said that her parents have only been informed about the assault recently because she previously feared that they would be disappointed with her.
She noted that she had worked on her book even before the emergence of the #MeToo movement, in which many celebrities and others started sharing accounts of sexual misconduct.
Since she started fighting in the UFC, VanZant has won seven of her 11 bouts, and she has also competed in Dancing With The Stars.
