Ring girls are the 'most useless people' in MMA, according to Khabib Nurmagomedov

• Ring girls serve no purpose in MMA.
• That's according to Khabib Nurmagomedov, who said this week that they're useless.
• Nurmagomedov runs an MMA firm Eagle FC, and ring girls will not be hired at these events.

Ring girls are the "most useless people" in the mixed martial arts industry.

That's according to Khabib Nurmagomedov, the former UFC lightweight champion who bought an MMA promotion and named it Eagles Fighting Championship after retiring from fighting forever last year.

Eagle FC, which holds its 11th event of the year on September 17, will not employ ring girls to hold numbered cards so that the audience can see which round is about to begin.

Nurmagomedov told reporters at a press conference in Russia this week that ring girls will not be present at Eagle FC shows because, when he attended fight events with his late father Abdulmanap, he would see that the audience would not be looking at the cards, and it would make him uncomfortable.

The 32-year-old promoter argues that as ring girls serve no real function at an event, they divert attention away from the actual competition that takes place inside the cage.

"These [women] are passing by and showing people that it is the second round but no one looks at the [card]," Nurmagomedov said, according to the MMA website Bloody Elbow. "I feel uncomfortable with my father."

He continued: "I am not against it but if you want to do it, don't impose it to me, do it aside. There are designated places for it.

"I think we must not mix all of it. This is my private opinion. We develop sport there, first of all. There should be some show elements, for sure. People want to come and watch, it is interesting for them. I think to mix it is incorrect."

Ring girls are regarded as a key part of combat sports tradition, Nurmagomedov said, adding that history does not always get things right.

"Look, I don't want to offend anyone," he said. "Ring girls are the most useless people in martial arts. What is their function? You can show that it is the second round on the screen.

"Do they develop a sport? Or they help people to see that it is the second round now? What are they doing? Tell me, please.

"I realize that is a history. History knows many mistakes. We read a history to avoid mistakes of the past in the future. If we look in the history, it says they are useless. That is my personal opinion."

On the likelihood of fight fans seeing ring girls at MMA tournaments which Nurmagomedov organizes and oversees, he said: "There are people that come to look at these [women], so you shouldn't do it on 17th of September.

"If you want to see the fights of the best world athletes, you have such a place on September 17th. It is CSKA Arena."