Meet UFC’s hottest ‘ring girl’
Sexy ring girl Arianny Celeste has made a fortune - by doing a lot more than just hoisting a card
SHE’S a lean, mean, money making machine.
When it was revealed in March that Arianny Celeste — the UFC’s most tenured ring girl, with 11 years under her belt — is worth more than a million dollars, jaws dropped. After all, an inside source told The Post that ring girls make between $30,000 and around $75,000 a year. (The UFC had no comment on this.)
“There’s this misconception that [ring girls are] talentless, no brains, and I think I’ve paved the way for girls in my position to see this is a great opportunity,” Celeste, who is based in Los Angeles, said at her photo shoot for The Post.
“I saw an opportunity to be more than a ring girl,” she added. “I’ve built it into a business.”
The 31-year-old has leveraged the high-profile gig into side jobs as a model, TV host and brand ambassador with more than 2.9 million Instagram followers. She has sponsorships with 1st Phorm muscle supplements and Fit Tea, and she’s starred in a Bud Light Lime ad. In the next year, she plans to launch a music career, a Tshirt line and a fitness Web site.
One person who’s not impressed? UFC fighter Ronda Rousey.
“I don’t know if the ring girls get paid too much or the fighters don’t get paid enough,” the fighter said at a 2015 event. “But yeah, there’s definitely a lot more in what the fighters do than what they [ring girls] do. So I think that’s one thing that’s unfair.” (Entrylevel fighters are reportedly paid around $8,000 per match.)
But Celeste says that ring girls earn every cent they make. She told The Post that she regularly works up to 13 hours a day on fight days, including meet-and-greets and autograph signings on top of her presenting duties in the ring.
“You’re there to make light of sometimes really scary situations and be full of energy,” she said, adding that the biggest part of her job is connecting with the audience.
But those can be scary situations in themselves. While most of her fan interactions are harmless — Celeste has received flowers, pizzas and marriage proposals — some have unnerved her.
“Following us to our hotels — that’s the creepy thing,” she said, adding she’s not afraid to speak up if a guy gets too aggressive.
“I’m a pretty tough girl,” she said. “When I was in Australia, at a bar with friends, a guy touched my [friend’s] butt. I said, ‘ You better get away quick if you don’t want to be slapped.’ ”
She’s also not afraid to stand up to Rousey, who, in addition to the ring-girl diss in 2015, has said of Celeste: “She’s only getting older, and I’m reaching my prime.”
Celeste, who practices kickboxing and Muay Thai, has responded by calling Rousey “a big bully” and saying, “I don’t really like the way she carries herself. I don’t think she’s a good role model for women.”
The ring girl, however, is taking the high road these days. While she admits her beef with Rousey isn’t buried, she told The Post, “I have no ill will toward her.”
Being a card-carrying hottie didn’t come easy for Celeste, who said she is shy by nature. When she was chosen at a UFC casting call in 2006 at age 21, Celeste was studying fitness management and nutrition at the University of Nevada at Las Vegas. She put her education on hold — and was immediately overwhelmed by her new gig.
“I didn’t have the confidence that I do now, and I was really scared and wanted it to be over,” Celeste admitted of her first matches.
The league showed its confidence in her in 2012, when Celeste and then boyfriend Praveen Chandra were both arrested on domestic violence charges. (All charges were later dropped.) At the time, UFC president Dana White said, “Arianny is our baby . . . We have her back and support her 100 percent.” Right now, Celeste is single. “I recently went through a breakup and it’s hard,” she said. But she knows what she wants — and what she doesn’t. “I’ve been seeing a lot of guys out there who try to put on a show. I’m looking for someone genuine.”
There’s this misconceptionm that ring girls are talentless . . . but I’ve built it into a business. — Arianny Celeste