A Brief History
On November 12, 1985, fans of Mixed Martial Arts fighting got an early Christmas present when the little girl that would grow up to become the hottest ring girl in MMA was born. Penelope Lopez Marquez was born (appropriately) in Las Vegas, Nevada, although you would know her better as Arianny Celeste. Today the lovely miss turns 32 years old and looks 10 years younger.
Digging Deeper
Celeste made her debut as an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ring girl in 2006, of course in her native Las Vegas. She went on to great acclaim for her beauty and agreeable demeanor, winning the first ever “Ring Girl of the Year” award for 2008 at the first ever annual MMA awards. Strikingly beautiful, Arianny went on to win the same title in 2009, 2010 and 2011, but lost out to Britney Palmer, another lovely young lady that won the award for 2012 and repeated her victory (narrow) over Celeste in 2013. In 2014 Arianny Celeste won back her crown as queen of the ring, then snagged another award in 2016, making her an incredible 6 time winner. (Incredible because the competition is unbelievable, with the prettiest girls on Earth competing!)
In 2016, another great gal, Jhenny Andrade (age 29), broke into the ranks of the great ringcard bearers by dethroning Celeste. This Blonde Brazilian Bombshell is serious competition! We will have to wait to see what happens at the 2017 awards.
Arianny Celeste is more than just a pretty face and more than just a ringcard bearer for UFC fights. She also appears on television (Overhaulin’ and other shows) and has appeared in many major magazines, including a nude set for Playboy (November 2010). She also appears on a web cast with Joe Rogan called UFC Ultimate Insider, has made special appearances at events and even appears in video games. She also has done charity work, making her a lot more than a one dimensional star. For those fans more interested in the physical aspect of Arianny, she is 5 feet 5 inches tall, has 35-24-34 measurements, bra cup size C, wears a size 2 dress, and weighs 120 pounds.
Not without controversy, like most people Celeste has had a couple of minor spats that became public, including an arrest in 2012 after a fight with her then boyfriend, with both parties accusing the other of domestic violence. Another public spat came in 2015 when former female fighting champion Ronda Rousey complained that ring girls made too much money and female fighters by contrast were underpaid. Celeste defended ring girls, saying that Rousey was a “big bully” and that being a ring girl is harder work than it appears. (Un-verified rumors are that UFC ring girls are paid $18,000 per year. That does not sound excessive! Of course, most also work as models and make appearances to earn more dough.)
Happy Birthday Arianny and good luck at the 2017 MMA Awards! To our readers, please see the following link for a history of MMA Awards: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_MMA_Awards.
Question for students (and subscribers): Who is your favorite octagon girl? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Maxim, May 2010.
The featured image in this article, a photograph of American ring girl and model Arianny Celeste, is in the public domain because it contains materials that originally came from the United States Marine Corps. As a work of the U.S. federal government, the image is in the public domain.
