Sophie Cunningham’s UFC 329 appearance was not part of the plan.
The WNBA star and Sports Illustrated swimsuit model added UFC ring girl to her résumé on Saturday night at UFC 329, stealing the show on one of the promotion’s biggest cards of the year.
UFC president Dana White revealed that this was not planned at all.
“I love Sophie Cunningham, and we’ve created a relationship,” White said at the UFC 329 post-fight press conference.
“She was here (Saturday night), and when she walked in, she goes, ‘Oh, I wanna walk around that.’ I said, ‘Then you’re gonna walk around it.’”
The highlight of the night happened as Paddy Pimblett jolted the crowd with his walkout for the co-main event.
At that moment, Cunningham stepped up for her cameo appearance as a UFC ring girl which had the fans on their feet.
“About eight minutes before she did it,” White revealed when asked when Cunningham and the UFC decided to make this happen.
Pimblett then defeated Benoit Saint-Denis with a front headlock choke inside one minute.
White attended Cunningham’s game in Las Vegas on Sunday, hugging her during the Indiana Fever’s 109-75 victory over the Las Vegas Aces.
A little extra star power can never hurt in show business, but for the UFC, it was actually an even bigger boon as UFC 329 ended in disappointment and chaos in Las Vegas.
After Pimblett’s startling win, Conor McGregor’s much-hyped return against Max Holloway was still on tap.
Though that was all for naught, as McGregor came out with a running switch kick to Holloway’s head that missed and he landed awkwardly on his right plant leg.
McGregor appeared to blow out his knee on the maneuver and the fight was called after 69 seconds with an injury.
Fans were set into a spiral as boos littered T-Mobile Arena, but Cunningham certainly provided a bright spot on Saturday night despite the unfortunate main event.
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
