Paige VanZant has some good news from her doctor: The UFC flyweight competitor is coming along fast from her right arm fracture and will soon be able to resume training.

“I got some good news from the doctor recently,” VanZant told MMA Junkie on Wednesday. “I’m only two to three weeks out from being able to start training again, so that’s super, super exciting news, and that means my plan to get back in the cage relatively soon is going to work.”

VanZant (8-4 MMA, 5-3 UFC), though, never has been one to sit around and do nothing. So it should come as no surprise that she’s going to try something new while her arm heals. PVZ will make her color commentary debut Thursday at “M-1 Global USA: Battle in the Desert” in Winterhaven, Calif., which airs live on UFC Fight Pass.

“For me, it’s just an awesome opportunity and experience,” VanZant said. “How easy for me as a professional fighter to be able to use everything in my career outside of the cage. It’s awesome to be ringside at some amazing fights and be able to commentate. More than anything, I’m just excited about the opportunity.”

While VanZant didn’t have commentary on the front burner as she pursues her MMA career, she wasn’t about to say no to the opportunity to call this card, which will be headlined by an M-1 USA welterweight title fight between James Warfield and Dakota Cochrane, when it was offered.

“It wasn’t necessarily something that I was openly pursuing,” VanZant said. “When I got the phone call that they were interested in having me do some of the commentary, it was a really quick and immediate yes. It is something that I hoped to eventually venture into, and it’s perfect timing for me because I am kind of down right now, letting my arm continue to heal, so it’s something I can do to really stay active in the fight world while my arm is healing.”

VanZant is about to experience the “both sides of the fence” feeling that only those who have both fought and offered live television commentary on MMA bouts can understand. 

On one hand, she’s listened to comments made by others during her fight and found herself disagreeing.

“I definitely have, actually, where I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s not really what I was thinking,’ but it just gives a different perspective, the commentators,” VanZant said. “It’s halfway a guessing game, but it’s 100 percent based on experience and giving some insight into, ‘Hey, this is what they could be doing. This is what they should be doing.’ You can go back and listen to that and take the feedback and actually learn from it.”

But now VanZant, who was last seen in the cage defeating Rachael Ostovich in January, is the one who has to go out there and criticize fighters and hopes that whatever critiques she might hand out will be taken in a constructive way.

“I think being a professional athlete, especially a fighter, you have to be able to take constructive criticism,” VanZant said. “There’s 100 things you could say that you would do differently when you’re on the outside looking in, and that’s pretty much what my job is, but I know as a fighter that in the cage, everything is different. So it’s just giving my input into what’s going on and how these fighters could be reacting differently and just trying to get inside the mind of the fighter in the cage and show my opinion through my experience from the outside.”

PVZ accepted this M-1 commentating gig as a tryout. She hopes it will lead to more such opportunities down the road.

“This is kind of my tryout,” she said. “It’s my very first one. I’m excited to see how I do. I’m going to put 100 percent of my best effort into this and hope that they actually continue to want me to do the commentary for them. I’m going to take advantage of the opportunity that’s right in front of me, but I would love to have this be something that helps me grow as a brand and show people that I can do so much more than just fighting.” 

For more on the upcoming UFC schedule, visit the UFC Rumors section of the site.