Ring card girls sent packing from Horn v Zerafa fight in Bendigo

Bendigo councillors put a stop to the time-honoured tradition of ring card girls for the Jeff Horn-Brent Zerafa fight night but the promoter has ended up having the last laugh. Details here.

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Update: Jeff Horn’s promoter has suffered a KO blow over political correctness on the eve of his fighter’s battle with Michael Zerafa in Bendigo on Saturday night, replacing his “ring card girls’’ with men after a local councillor objected to the use of “token trophy women”.

Promoter Dean Lonergan said he was disappointed that women’s groups and local councillor Jennifer Alden would publicly accuse him and boxing of objectifying women.

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“I am disappointed, but I am also responsive. I will replace the three women who were employed to signal the start of each round with men,” Lonergan said.

“Ironically four women will be fighting tonight and wearing less clothing than those women I have now had to replace with men in response to these protests.’’

Tammy Bills and Demey McConachie said they are angry at being out of a job. Picture: saaimaging

And so he did.

But after two hours of sustained booing for the sheepish ring card boy Tim Bills, promoter Dean Lonergan decided the crowd had voted with their voices and the ring card girls - including Tim’s sister Tammy - made a return during a preliminary bout.

Lonergan said the decision was a vote for common sense over extreme political correctness.

The three round card girls who were being paid to sit ringside in black pantsuits as spectators went back into action during a preliminary bout between Issac Hardman and Mitchell Whitelaw.

The ‘ring card boy’ was not appreciated by the Bendigo fight crowd. Picture: Getty Images

The ring card girl finally gets her chance. Picture: Getty Images

There was sustained cheering as 23-year-old Kalista Thomas picked up her placard for Round 3 like it was a torch for free expression and strode around the ring beaming.

Lonergan had appeased protests from Bendigo councillors for a short time before deciding that the majority ruled.

``Round card girls have been a fixture at boxing for decades and to condemn them not only was doing three girls out of a job but it was really annoying the crowd who treated the girls with the utmost respect.’’

Lonergan said the move was a result of the councillor’s outcry and concern from sponsors but he added: “These uninformed media comments from an organisation that have never raised their concerns with me, shows their agenda is more about headlines than equal opportunity.”

“They have denied three women the opportunity to do the job they applied for.

They are intelligent women. Their freedom to work in an environment that they choose and enjoy doing has been completely undermined. These protests are an attack on them.

“To further minimise protests the term ‘ring girl’ will not be used. These roles will now be known as ‘fight progress managers’.”

Councillor Alden, a member of the City of Greater Bendigo’s gender equity working group, told the Bendigo Advertiser newspaper the practice of using women to signal the start of each round was not in step with the messages the city wanted to promote.

Glenn Rushton , Kate Jones, Jeff Horn, Annastacia Palaszczuk and Dean Lonergan together at Suncorp Stadium. Picture: Annette Dew

“Stereotypes such as these are not respectful of women, and being respectful of women is key to eliminating other forms of violence, especially violence towards women and children,” Cr Alden said.

Ring card girls have been a feature at world title bouts for half a century.

The women employed for last night’s bout were due to walk about the ring in evening gowns with a large painted placard showing the number of the round as the fight progressed.

Councillor Jennifer Alden was behind the push to ban ring card girls.

Another Bendigo councillor, Yvonne Wrigglesworth, told the Advertiser that it was a “wrong look” to see ring girls parading in front of a City of Greater Bendigo banner.

She told the paper it was “an outdated and misogynistic concept” that females were the prize of men beating each other to semi-unconsciousness.

The three young women planning to work as ring card girls – Kalista Thomas, 23, Tammy Bills, 21, and Demey Maconachie, 23 – were angry at being sidelined.

Thomas, a beautician at one of Bendigo’s leading salons said: “To undermine my work as a ring card girl and call it sexualised I feel is absolutely discriminatory. I have always been shown respect (at boxing) from all involved from the audience through to the boxers, the trainers, their teams.’’

Maconachie added: “I work as a freelance professional dancer. I now run my own successful fitness coaching business and 95 per cent of my clientele are women who I train to feel confident and empowered daily.’’