Call for “Octagon Girls’’ to be dumped from Melbourne UFC event

First it was grid girls at the Melbourne Grand Prix. Then ring girl at boxing bouts. Now there is a push to remove “Octagon Girls’’ from UFC in Melbourne.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Lord Mayor Sally Capp have called for scantily clad UFC “Octagon girls” to be dumped from a historic fight night in Melbourne next month.

Premier Daniel Andrews and Lord Mayor Sally Capp have called for scantily clad UFC “Octagon girls” to be dumped from a historic fight night in Melbourne next month.

Mr Andrews — whose backflip on cage fighting laws in 2015 brought UFC to Victoria for the first time — urged organisers of the event tipped to attract a world record crowd to do “the right thing’’.

Melbourne’s Formula One Grand Prix became the first to ban grid girls last year.

Boxing “ring girls’’ were this month replaced with a male “Fight Progress Manager” at the “Battle of Bendigo’’ between Jeff Horn and Michael Zerafa.

Now there are calls for Octagon Girls to be axed from UFC243 in Melbourne on October 6 in the interests of political correctness.

UFC “Octagon girls” could be dumped from a historic fight night in Melbourne next month.

“The Grand Prix did the right thing in ending the use of grid girls and we encourage other events to make similar moves,’’ a spokesman for Mr Andrews said.

“We have come a long way in making sport more accessible for women and girls — events have a powerful message to send when it comes to the representation of women in sport and the community.”

Ms Capp said UFC girls, who parade onstage in skimpy outfits during fighter weigh-ins and hold round cards aloft during bouts, were outdated.

“It’s 2019, do we really still need scantily clad women to wander around the middle of a fighting ring between rounds?” she said.

“Grid girls are no longer part of Formula One, walk-on girls are no longer part of professional darts — surely it’s time to move on.”

Octagon Girls including Red Dela Cruz took part in UFC243 in Melbourne earlier this year and have previously been employed for events in Adelaide, Sydney and the Gold Coast.

But UFC Australia and New Zealand vice president Peter Kloczko was unable to say what role Octagon Girls would play in next month’s Victorian event.

Grid girls were banned from the Melbourne Grand Prix last year.

Three boxing ring girls were sacked and replaced by blokes after a sexism row in Bendigo. Picture: Tim Carrafa.

Asked if they would appear in Melbourne and if they had already been recruited he said: “UFC has a reputation for producing and delivering world-class events”.

“We know Melburnians love their live sport and turn up in numbers while UFC fans will be visiting Melbourne from all parts of Australia and across the globe for this historic event in the making,’’ he said.

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Taxpayers are believed to have tipped in millions of dollars to bring the event to Melbourne with the State Government hoping fans will come from interstate and overseas.

UFC organisers were also unable to guarantee fans would have clear views after

hundreds of complaints about seats at last month’s Marvel Stadium Australia-US basketball series.

Melbourne already holds the global UFC crowd record with 56,214 packing the Docklands stadium to see Holly Holm upset Ronda Rousey in 2015.

But organisers expect UFC243 to set new ground.

The former Brumby Government banned mixed martial arts fights inside Octagon enclosures in 2008 but the law was overturned by Labor seven years later.

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