Khabib Nurmagomedov has publicly criticized the scantily-clad ring girls in attendance at UFC bouts.
The 32-year-old retired professional mixed martial artist revealed that he will not be employing ring girls at any of his Eagles Fighting Championship events in Moscow next month.
Speaking to members of the media at a recent press conference, Nurmagomedov said the bikini-wearing models make him feel "uncomfortable" when taking his father to see fights with him.
Per The Sun, Nurmagomedov stated:
Take a look at this interview with Nurmagomedov below:"Look, I don't want to offend anyone. Ring girls are the most unnecessary people in martial arts.
"What is their function? I have a question: You can show that it's the second round on the screen. There are people who understand martial arts and they are walking. [...]
"I think they're the most useless people in martial arts. What function? How? Do they develop the sport? Or do they help people to see that it is the second round now? What are they doing? Tell me, please."
He added: "I realize that this [is] history. History knows many mistakes. We read history to avoid mistakes of the past in the future. If we look at history, it says they are useless.
"That is my personal opinion. Dana White maybe likes it, maybe you do too. But my name is not Dana, my name is Khabib."
This comes not long after TikTok influencer Addison Rae claimed to have been fired from a UFC reporting job as a result of the backlash she received over accusations of nepotism.
The controversy began when Rae announced she's been hired as an anchor in a post shared with her 4.8 million followers on Twitter on Saturday, July 10.
Rae jokingly wrote: "I studied broadcast journalism in college for 3 whole months to prepare for this moment."
However, after her statement drew criticism from journalists, pundits, and members of the general public
Several hours later, Rae appeared to state that she had lost the position as a result of the poor feedback to her previous post, writing simply: "[never mind] y’all got me fired."
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