JAKARTA - About a year ago, UFC legend Khabib Nurmagomedov called ring girl useless. Now, it's the turn of professional boxer Ebanie Bridges to criticize the Russian fighter.
Ring girls are women who enter the ring in the middle of a round of combat sports, carrying a sign containing the next round number.
"I don't want to offend anyone, ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts. What does it do?" UFC retired Nurmagomedov said at the time.
Nurmagomedov's comments about the ring girl received criticism from many parties. Among others; Conor McGregor and ring girl itself, Arianny Celeste.
Recently, the IBF Bridges world-class champion asked Nurmagomedov to stop discussing the topic. Bridges used to be a ring girl.
"Why are people who are not us trying to take our job from us?" he told football legend Alan Brazil and Ray Parlor at Pub Talk.
"We love it, I'm happy to be a ring girl. I don't think it's for nothing. I'm happy to be a part of the entertainment, getting paid to watch the fight.
"You have a person who says it's sexist, it's objective... maybe I want to be injected. Maybe I want to make money...don't make decisions for me. You can't box without that ring girl."
"I love fighting sports, I grew up with it. I love it. I get paid crazy money by just sitting on the side of the ring, maybe worth more than some fighters," about his own experience as a ring girl, Bridges added.
"I walk in the ring with a G-string. They (ring girl, right now) don't wear a G-string. But, in my heyday, that's how we do it."
Bridges is known for his minimal clothes during weight off before fighting in the ring. This made him get a variety of strange online requests.
"I got love letters, all kinds of things," he said. "They (fans) asked for my bath water, nail scissors, and sweat."
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