By Alexey Sukachev
Those who were able to witness the latest event in Russia put together by the “World of Boxing” promotional company, which included a heavyweight WBC eliminator between Alexander Povetkin and Mike Perez and the WBC cruiserweight championship clash between Grigory Drozd and Lukasz Janik - they were surprised to see fully clothed round card girls entering the ring between the rounds.
Most believed this was a one time occurrence. Apparently not. Russian businessman Andrey Ryabinskiy, who heads WOB, confirmed his new approach in an interview with media outlet TASS.
“People of different cultural and religious views attend our shows," said Ryabinskiy. “Also, Muslim fighters as well as their supporters, whom we fully respect, take part in our events. A boxing contest is not the place for girls in bikinis. We support a more solid and restrained approach. It’s a serious international competition, not a remote striptease bar. So we’ve decided to change it, to make our design more civilized. In the States, girls are used to wearing bikinis. Similarly, we want them to look beautiful but also modest and elegant."
This news was met with a mixed reaction amongst casual fans and Russian fighting community. One of the supporters is former WBA heavyweight champion and presently State Duma member Nikolay Valuev:
“An image of the naked female body was designated by promoters in order to gain more attention to their shows. I’m not a Puritan but everything is fine at the appropriate time and place. The event won’t be spoiled by fully clothed girls. The majority of fighters and fight fans don’t pay any attention to them as they came here to see prize fighting. Naked girls provoke the same well-known dreams, feelings and emotions - which should be reserved for another time. Those kinds of girls can be easily found in the certain places."
The majority of casual fans are not in agreement. In a poll arranged by Sports.ru - no less than 75% (at the moment this story goes to print) expressed a negative approach to fully clothed ring card girls.
It’s to be noted that in the past some fight cards were staged at local casinos, which sometimes featured topless ring card girls during the fights.