{"id":16684,"date":"2026-07-12T14:22:40","date_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:22:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16684"},"modified":"2026-07-12T14:22:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-12T14:22:40","slug":"sophie-cunningham-kicks-off-her-shoes-and-walks-the-octagon-at-ufc-329-as-a-surprise-ring-girl","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/?p=16684","title":{"rendered":"Sophie Cunningham kicks off her shoes and walks the Octagon at UFC 329 as a surprise ring girl"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Sophie Cunningham made the most of her night off in Las Vegas.<\/p>\n

The Indiana Fever guard made a surprise appearance as an Octagon girl at UFC 329 on Saturday night, just hours before she was due back at her real job against the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE OUTKICK SPORTS COVERAGE<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\"Sophie<\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
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Sophie Cunningham announces a round during a lightweight fight at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on July 11, 2026.<\/span> (Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

Cunningham was already sitting ringside at T-Mobile Arena when she apparently decided watching the fights wasn\u2019t enough.<\/p>\n

Before the co-main event between Paddy Pimblett and Benoit Saint Denis, the 6-foot-1 WNBA star grabbed the Round 1 card, kicked off her shoes and took a lap around the Octagon in a black tank top and shorts.<\/p>\n

She also broke out the pointing gesture that has become one of the biggest memes of the year.<\/p>\n

According to UFC CEO Dana White, the whole thing came together about eight minutes before Cunningham walked out.<\/p>\n

WWE HALL OF FAMER NIKKI BELLA CHALLENGES WNBA STARS CAITLIN CLARK AND SOPHIE CUNNINGHAM TO A MATCH<\/strong><\/p>\n

“We\u2019ve created a relationship, and she was here tonight,” White told reporters after the event. “When she walked in, she goes, \u2018Oh, I wanna walk around that.\u2019 I said, \u2018Then you\u2019re gonna walk around it.\u2019”<\/p>\n

And that was that. Sophie Cunningham was a UFC ring girl.<\/p>\n

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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham jokes with Max Holloway following UFC 329 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on July 11, 2026.<\/span> (Mark J. Rebilas\/Imagn Images)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

She only got one lap, though. Pimblett choked Saint Denis unconscious in less than a minute, ending the fight in the first round.<\/p>\n

Cunningham still seemed to enjoy her brief career change, laughing, posing for cameras and pointing toward celebrity row.<\/p>\n

“I love Sophie Cunningham,” White said. “Yeah, she\u2019s fun.”<\/p>\n

Clearly.<\/p>\n

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\"Sophie<\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\n
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Sophie Cunningham announces a round during a lightweight fight at UFC 329 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nev., on July 11, 2026.<\/span> (Chris Unger\/Zuffa LLC)<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

CLICK HERE FOR MORE SPORTS COVERAGE ON FOXNEWS.COM<\/strong><\/p>\n

Cunningham has become one of the WNBA\u2019s most recognizable players, thanks largely to her role as Caitlin Clark\u2019s enforcer.<\/p>\n

Her finger-pointing confrontation with DeWanna Bonner became one of the memes of the year. Her Adidas Crazy Energy player-exclusive shoe comes out July 24. And now she can add UFC ring girl to her r\u00e9sum\u00e9.<\/p>\n

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sophie Cunningham is on top of the world.<\/p>\n

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Amber Harding is a writer for OutKick.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sophie Cunningham made the most of her night off in Las Vegas. The Indiana Fever…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16685,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16684","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/playball.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}