Two of the most popular UFC ring girls Arianny Celeste and Brittney Palmer are now firing back at Khabib Nurmagomedov’s criticism of their roles.
Nurmagomedov raised eyebrows last week when he boldly claimed that ring girls serve no purpose in sports such as MMA and boxing. His rival Conor McGregor tweeted a picture of a scene from the Simpsons that depicted two girls labeled as Celeste and Palmer dancing around a character labeled as Nurmagomedov.
Celeste said: “Sorry we make you uncomfortable,” and Palmer reposted McGregor’s picture, writing: “Sorry not sorry”.
Nurmagomedov has been coaching fighters at the American Kickboxing Academy and has also launched his own MMA promotion where he plans to have zero ring girls.
“I don’t want to offend anyone, ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts. What is their function?
“I have a question, you can show it is the second round that is on the screen.
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“There are people who understand martial arts and they are walking. This is my personal opinion Do they develop the sport? Or they help people to see it is the second round now?
“I realise that it is a history. History knows many mistakes. We read history to avoid mistakes of the past in the future.
“If we look in the history it says they are useless. That is my personal opinion.”
Former UFC middleweight champion Michael Bisping said Nurmagomedov’s description of ring girls as “the most useless people in martial arts” was “right” and “true”.
“But ring girls don’t go out in a cage or fight. They’re there for the show. I like it because it has historically happened in boxing, and now, of course, in MMA,” the British pundit opined on his podcast.
“Ring girls are an addition for the audience – they add pomp and splendor to all this, make the event a little more fun.