Indiana Fever WNBA star Sophie Cunningham made a surprise apperance as the Ring Girl at the UFC on the weekend and explained how she is using her relationship with teammate Caitlin Clark to build her own brand.
UFC 329 was one of the biggest cards of this year as it featured the return of the iconic Conor McGregor up against Max Holloway. We all know how that turned out…Moving on.
Cunningham explained how her cameo definitely wasn’t planned and played out “literally five minutes before”.
“Me and Dana have kind of become friends,” Cunningham told Uncrowned. “He’s an amazing dude. The UFC’s awesome. So I went to my first live fight, which was so cool. The main fight was a little oof, but the whole experience overall was wonderful. He did come over to say, ‘What’s up?’ and I was like, ‘Hey, if you need a ring girl, let me know.’ He was like, ‘Alright, first round for the Paddy fight.’ I was like, ‘Yeah.’ He was like, ‘No, seriously,’ and I was like, ‘Oh, god.’”
UFC commentator John Anik referred to Sophie as Caitlin Clark’s ‘on-court enforcer’ while introducing her during her Octagon walk and she has leaned into that big time.
“It was so much fun, though,” she said. “Like it was just a great environment. At the end of the day, you pull the card up, and you turn left. Hopefully, I could do that. But the girls, the real ones, they were helping me, and it was fun. You have to have a little personality and a little sass, but it was a good time. There’s more people who went to the fight than just me. So I think that’s part of where the WNBA is at. People want us to be involved and are giving us those opportunities to be involved.”
Opportunities are becoming plentiful for Cunningham.
Since joining the Fever, where she has embraced the role of Clark’s “enforcer,” Cunningham has launched a podcast, joined USA Network as an active player analyst, launched a signature shoe and become a meme.
She recently spoke candidly about sharing the spotlight with Clark.
“It can be hard, but at the same time, what an opportunity to be yourself and inspire people who are just like you,”Cunningham said of playing with Caitlin. “And so you can look at it as a threat. You can look at it as an opportunity. And I definitely came here looking for an opportunity, not only off the court but also like on the court.”
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