Former UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov recently found himself in hot water for telling the combat sports media that Octagon girls, or “ring girls” depending on your platform, are the most useless people in all of martial arts.
He also wants aspiring female fighters to stay home.
UFC fixture and former Playboy cover girl Arianny Celeste shrugged off the coarse critique, reminding the old-fashioned “Eagle” that her “badass” position with the promotion — which made her “independently wealthy” — deserves respect.
Respect she never got from Ronda Rousey.
The latest fighter to chime in with comments on the merits of UFC card carriers is former PRIDE FC heavyweight champion Fedor Emelianenko, who once found himself in the doghouse for suggesting female fighters should stay home and raise kids.
“The girls are showing the number of the round,” Emelianenko told Telesport. “The only [thing] is to dress them more decent. You know I don’t have [anything to do with it]. I have enough problems and affairs of my team and my family to not fill my head with stupid things.”
Blame “stupid” questions for “stupid” fans.
Nurmagomedov retired from MMA back in late 2020 so it probably doesn’t matter what he thinks at this point. As for Emelianenko, his retirement tour continues opposite Timothy Johnson under the Bellator MMA banner this October in Moscow.