How much do UFC ring girls make?

Tune in to any UFC fight night,and you’ll notice two things: the elaborate ceremony introducing the fighters, and the ring girls: smiling, athletic, and announcing rounds with oversized markers, or simply standing by.

Since at least 2022, UFC ring girls have drawn criticism from fighters and fans for potentially earning more than some competitors, raising the question: how much do they actually make?

Is it true that UFC ring girls make more than fighters?

This is highly unlikely, but it has surfaced in repeated offhand remarks by some fighters.

The bombshell claim to address here is whether UFC ring girls truly outearn fighters, and what logic there would be to it. A controversy was stirred in 2022 by Uriah Hall, who claimed that some girls actually fetch more than "some" of the signed fighters.

Cited by TalkSports, Hall said that fighters would earn about $10,000 to fight, along with a $10,000 for a win bonus, while he alleged, "---ing ring card girls are making $70,000, which is utterly ---ing ridiculous."

Arianny Celeste responded to Hall at the time, arguing that she had grown tired of news articles citing UFC fighters about ring girls’ supposedly higher-than-fighters salaries, let alone the referees’.

She pointed out that she had been - at the time of the argument - in the industry for more than 15 years, and she had been smart with her money, investing in real estate to secure equity.

Celested was highly critical of the insinuation of how much UFC girls earned and whether the amount was actually justified.

"I don’t know where the assumption is, but it’s always an article from a fighter saying, ‘We make more,’ and it’s always a picture of me. So, no. I don’t make more than the fighters. I’ve been in this industry for over 15 years, and I’ve worked my a** off to be where I am in life."

Celeste argued she had been running other business ventures, including OnlyFans. In short, she concluded that the "rumors were not true" and urged fighters to stop speculating about the issue.

Khabib Nurmagomedov has also been among the outspoken critics of ring girls and their purpose in the UFC, calling them "the most useless people in martial arts."

Celeste took that jab with dignity as well, simply posting back: "Sorry, we make you uncomfortable." Other fighters have been outright disrespectful to ring girls, with Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey infamously clapping back at Celeste in 2012 that her job was to "show her t***."

So, How Much Do Ring Girls Really Make?

The truth is, no one but the UFC knows. The promotion is not openly advertising salaries, nor has it made a policy of disclosing such figures.

Some media outlets have speculated that ring girls could be earning as much as $1,000 and $5,000 per event, but this is still debatable, as there is no clear source of the information.

Ring girls have openly disputed the numbers suggested by Internet netizens, arguing that there was no substance to those numbers. Brittney Palmer appeared onThe Residency Podcast in 2022 and stated that ring girls do not make "nearly as much" as what people are saying they do.

Palmer even joked that she had shown these speculations to Dana (White), and jested that they should make it happen.

Palmer noted that the numbers could also be misinterpreted because, in her opinion, people would probably take the aggregate amount that ring girls would make for all events they show up at for the year.

Wrapping up

The debate over how much UFC ring girls earn says more about perception than reality. While rumors suggest they may rival fighters’ pay, there is no verified evidence to support such claims.

What is clear is that ring girls, like fighters, build their income from multiple sources beyond the octagon. Until the UFC chooses to disclose this information, we may never find out how much ring girls actually make.

Image credit: UFC.com