Khabib Nurmagomedov‘s comment regarding ring girls is still catching backlash.
The former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov has been at the center of controversy a few times in his career. Last year, he took some heat for comments he made about ring girls in the sport of MMA.
“Look, I don’t want to offend anyone, ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts. What is their purpose? I have a question,” Nurmagomedov said. “You can show that it is the second round on the screen. I realize that 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.”
Immediately in the aftermath of these comments, fighters such as Valentina Shevchenko and ring girls like Brittany Palmer spoke out against this kind of hate. Now a year later, these comments by the former champ are still hitting people the wrong way.
IBF bantamweight world champion Ebanie Bridges has responded to the comments and expressed her disagreement with Nurmagomedov.
“Why are people who aren’t us, trying to take our jobs away from us?” she told football legends Alan Brazil and Ray Parlour on Pub Talk (h/t Marca.com.) “We love it, I loved being a ring girl. I don’t think it’s useless. I loved being part of the entertainment, being paid to watch those fights.”
Bridges spent some time as a ring girl herself and have heard the comments from others about the job. She knows the kinds of things people say but chooses to ignore them and focus on the love pf combat sports instead.
“You’ve got people saying it’s sexist, it’s objectifying… maybe I want to be objectified. Maybe I want to make money… don’t make my mind up for me. You can’t have boxing without the ring girls.”
There has been a call to ban ring girls from events a few years ago in Australia, but the UFC still continues to utilize these women at all events,
Do you like to see ring girls at MMA events?
