As a high school freshman in a small town in northwest Oregon, Paige VanZant often went home with tears trickling down her eyes.

She was the victim of bullying. A pack of girls targeted her. They tried to make her life a nightmare. Barely 5-feet tall, she was one of the smallest kids in school, not physically able to defend herself.

VanZant’s mother, Rachel, often visited her daughter at school that freshman year, under the guise of offering her coffee, just to make sure Paige was all right.

“I just told her to be strong and positive and eventually it would pass and she’d get through it,” she said. “I think people just saw that she had a good spirit and kept her head up high and was happy and for whatever reason there were a few girls who that bothered. It was their goal in life to bring her down.”

Those girls wouldn’t want to mess with VanZant these days. Now standing 5-4 and a muscle-packed 115 pounds, VanZant is one of the top women’s mixed martial arts strawweight fighters in the nation.

The 19-year-old VanZant, who moved to Sparks after her freshman year of high school and graduated from TMCC High School in 2012, is in the midst of an intense five-month training camp as she prepares to compete on season 20 of “The Ultimate Fighter,” a reality television show that will crown the UFC’s first strawweight (115 pounds) champion. VanZant is one of 16 women who will compete for the title.

VanZant didn’t initially get into MMA fighting to combat bullying, but the sport has boosted her self-confidence and helped knock down some barriers she had built. It’s change her life.

“At first, I didn’t think there was a correlation, but now I look back at the bullying as one of the reasons I did like fighting,” VanZant said. “If that happens again, I can defend myself. I guess I have to thank the people who did those things to me because without them I don’t think I would have become a fighter.”

A tomboy at heart

VanZant grew up in Dayton, Ore., a city without a stoplight and with a population under 2,600 people.

She rode dirt bikes and loved to fish and hunt (her fighting nickname is “12 Gauge”). Unlike many kids, she wasn’t glued to video games and social media. She spent most of her time outdoors and was an excellent dancer.

“She was a tomboy when she was really young,” her mother said.

Even before she got in the octagon, VanZant was always feisty, a competitive spirit pulsing through her veins. The youngest of two children, VanZant’s first foray into fighting came in middle school.

“Her and the neighbor kids used to like putting on boxing gloves and punch each other,” Rachel said.

But that was just neighborhood fun. VanZant didn’t seriously get into the sport until after she moved to Nevada. After landing in Sparks, she looked for a dance studio close to home but couldn’t find one. Instead, she stumbled onto The Lion’s Den, the gym run by UFC Hall of Famer Ken Shamrock.

Her father suggested she should give fighting a try. She did and ended up falling in love with it. Initially, she mostly concentrated on boxing before moving into full-fledged mixed martial arts.