As the UFC 329 co-main event between Paddy Pimblett and Benoit Saint Denis was getting under way, Fever star Sophie Cunningham was trotting around the octagon with a ring card sign in her hands.
The unexpected appearance definitely caught everybody off guard as there was no special announcement that Cunningham would be making an appearance. She walked around the cage with the ‘Round 1’ sign and then sat down with the other octagon girls as the fight got started.
It turns out, Cunningham didn’t get any special introduction because she wasn’t scheduled to serve as an octagon girl until minutes before she did it.
“[We hired her] about eight minutes before she did it,” UFC CEO Dana White said with a laugh at the UFC 329 post-fight press conference. “I love Sophie Cunningham. We’ve created a relationship and she was here tonight.
“When she walked in she goes ‘I want to walk around that [octagon].’ I said then you’re going to walk around it. She’s fun.”
Cunningham, who plays for the Indiana Fever, gained a lot of notoriety after she joined the team in a trade and immediately became known as the “enforcer” when she avenged a dirty move perpetrated on her teammate Caitlin Clark during a game.
So Cunningham being a UFC fan shouldn’t be a total surprise but rather than fighting, she decided to play octagon girl for at least one night only.
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