UFC ring girls should be scrapped for Melbourne show, Australian politicians say – ‘time to move on’
- Victorian Premier and Melbourne’s Lord Mayor want octagon girls ditched for UFC 243 on October 6
- ‘It’s 2019, do we really still need scantily clad women to wander around the middle of a fighting ring between rounds?’
Australian politicians have called for the UFC to ditch the octagon ring girls for Melbourne’s blockbuster October 6 event.
UFC 243, featuring a middleweight title unification fight between Robert Whittaker and Israel Adesanya, is set to sell out the 53,359-seat Marvel Stadium next month.
However, Victoria premier Daniel Andrews and Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp have voiced complaints about the MMA organisation’s use of women parading around the cage in bikinis at its events.
“It’s 2019, do we really still need scantily clad women to wander around the middle of a fighting ring between rounds?” she told Herald Sun.
Last year’s Melbourne Grand Prix saw Formula One ditch the tradition of using grid girls, who stand behind cars on the starting grid, and who hold cards with the names of drivers.
“Grid girls are no longer part of Formula One, walk-on girls are no longer part of professional darts – surely it’s time to move on,” Capp said.
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“The Grand Prix did the right thing in ending the use of grid girls and we encourage other events to make similar moves,’ a spokesman for Andrews told the Daily Mail.
Ring girls were banned from Jeff Horn’s boxing match against Michael Zerafa in Australia last weekend, after local councillors and women’s advocacy groups complained.
Promoters replaced the women with “fight progress managers” – men in trousers and a shirt – to perform the pre-round duties for the “Battle of Bendigo” in Victoria.
UFC ring girls reportedly earn around US$25,000 a year for their part-time work.
“Stereotypes of this nature are not respectful to women,” local councillor Yvonne Wrigglesworth argued before the bout.
“Being respectful to women is key to eliminating other forms of violence, especially violence towards women and children,” politician Jennifer Alden said.
