Retired ring girl Arianny Celeste has revealed how Dana White helped her get through an infamous and unlikely feud with Ronda Rousey.
Celeste, who made millions before quitting her UFC job last year, found herself in an unlikely beef with the biggest star in the sport nine years ago.
Rousey used ring girls to highlight the fighter pay issue in the UFC.
“I think that they should get paid more than the ring girls,” she said in February 2015.
“And I don’t know if the ring girls get paid too much or the fighters don’t get paid enough. But yeah. There’s definitely a lot more in what the fighters do than what they do.
“So, I think that’s one thing that’s unfair.”
However, this wasn’t the first time ‘Rowdy’ had taken a jab at Celeste.
In 2012, the MMA icon joked about Celeste being higher than her when discussing Maxim’s “Hot 100” list, which ranks celebrity women by attractiveness.
“It would have been really funny if I’d beaten Arianny Celeste,” Rousey said. “Like, ‘Ha-ha, it’s your job to show your t**ies [and] I do that better than you.”
Celeste responded to Rousey’s second jibe by calling her a ‘big bully’.
4Rousey was the biggest star in UFC during her heydayCredit: Getty
In doing so, she started a war of words that became personal and is still talked about in the MMA community almost a full decade later.
Celeste recently reflected on her career with the UFC during an interview with MMA Junkie, and, of course, her feud with Rousey came up.
The 38-year-old revealed the role UFC CEO White played in helping her stay cool when she became the unlikely target of a fighter’s aggression.
“I never talked to her. I kind of just avoided the whole situation just because I didn’t even know her,” Celeste said.
4Celeste retired from her UFC job in 2023 – now she’s hoping to join the Hall of FameCredit: @ariannyceleste – instagram
“For me, it was understandable a little bit, though, because she’s a fighter. I’m a ring girl at the time. I believe I was the female face of the UFC, and here comes this amazing athlete, but she’s like, ‘Who are you? You’re the face of the UFC. No, no, no – I’m going to be.’
“So, I get it. It’s like a competitive thing, but I think the way she handled herself was not cool. If I feel like she’s a little bit more aggressive in nature, to each their own. She didn’t make me sweat at all. I was perfectly fine. I just ignored the situation.
“I’m pretty peaceful unless you mess with me. I definitely did call Dana. I was like, ‘What do I do about this?’ and he was able to calm me down because it didn’t affect me, but it did bother me.
“I’m like, ‘Hey, I don’t even know this person. What should I do? Why is she being like this?’ After thinking about it letting it fizzle, I kind of got her perspective a little bit more.”
