Life in your 20s is all about “doing it for the plot.” For me, that’s looked like a long list of odd jobs and gigs that, in the moment, feel random but always leave me with a story. My latest odd job? Becoming a ring girl for the Legacy Fighting Alliance (LFA) MMA League.
It started with a message from my friend K-LA. She asked if I’d ever be interested in working as a ring girl. Truthfully, I only knew the basics: women circling the cage, holding up cards, hyping up the crowd. My dad always taught me “If it’s legitamite, say yes to everything.” You never know where an opportunity will take you. With plenty of curiosity, I said yes.
What Even Is a Ring Girl?
I’d honestly never thought too deeply about it. Most people don’t. But when you’re suddenly the one holding the card, you start noticing the bigger picture. Ring girls have been around since the 1960s, when they were first introduced in boxing matches as a way to keep audiences engaged between rounds. They weren’t just about telling the crowd “Round 2,” they became part of the spectacle, adding glamour to balance the grit of the fight itself. MMA has carried on that tradition, and today, ring girls are as much a part of the entertainment package as the lights, commentary, or walk-out music.
Standing in Those Shoes
Walking into the arena that night, card in hand, I realized I was stepping into a role that’s both strangely simple and oddly complex. On the surface, it’s just a walk around the cage. But socially, it’s fascinating: a tradition built on the idea that a woman’s presence can add “oohs and ahhs” to an already charged atmosphere. It’s one of those jobs that sparks questions about gender roles, performance, and entertainment. Could a man do it? Sure. But the role has always been codes as feminine, designed to play into the audience’s expectations.
What struck me most was the contrast. In the octagon, it’s all about raw dominance and strength, overwhelmingly male traits in a sport still led by men. And then, between rounds, the lights turn to women like me, who are there sauntering around and blowing kisses. It’s almost like the event is catering to every taste imaginable: if the intensity of men beating each other up doesn’t hold your attention, perhaps the eye candy walking the cage will. In a way, it highlights two roles society often places on us — the fighters embodying power and aggression, and the ring girls embodying beauty. That juxtaposition is what made the experience so fascinating to me, and I’m not the only one.
What I Took Away
As my inaugural shift as a ring girl came to a close, I realized I wasn’t just part of the show — I was observing the show, too, seeing how the crowd reacted, how the whole machine of fight night works, and how traditions like this keep rolling on despite the changing social trends and norms.
Will I look back years from now and smile about my time as a ring girl? Absolutely. But that’s the beauty of these unexpected chapters: they’re the stories that stick, the ones that add color to your life resume.
Because in the end, being a ring girl wasn’t just about holding up a number. It was about stepping into yet another one of those quirky, fascinating roles that make up this patchwork career of mine. And honestly? I wouldn’t trade those stories for anything.
