Gemma Jones has been astonished for seven years as a ring girl and worked at around 700 events – but she has revealed that it is far from glamorous life that people might think.
From cheating boxers to wardrobe disruptions and insane pre-Vecht diets, Gemma tells the sun the truth about life in the ring.
The beautiful 37-year-old can perform at a maximum of two events every weekend, sometimes working from 1 p.m. to midnight.
Each time she earns a maximum of £ 500, which mainly covers MMA, Cage Fighting and Bare Knuckle attacks with her work with a mother of three and another job as an expert in the field of skin treatment.
Here she lifts the lid why the life of a ring girl is definitely not all superstars and stilettos….
Why I will never go out with another boxer
I have a nice boyfriend, he works in fashion and we were five years of friends before we started last year.
But four years ago I went out with a boxer for a few months until I found out in the worst way that he was a cheat.
I love boxing and was in the audience for a fight when my friend
I told me not to look behind me.
I did it and right behind me was my boyfriend and another one
Woman who happened was actually his girlfriend of years.
It all started and he even blamed me and tried to accuse me of causing problems – and it turned out that I was not the only woman he had cheated.
Although some boxers are beautiful, others think they are God’s gift to women and are very arrogant. I will never again run the risk of getting one of the bad ones.
We are a knockout
Part of the job description looks great. I am usually not someone for makeup, but I will spend a good hour or longer doing my hair and makeup before I go into the ring. I also get my nails regularly and go on tanning beds.
I wear a huge bag full of everything I need with me – including spare panties because they are often loaded to get into the ring.
But it is not glamorous, the large changing rooms are rightly reserved for the hunters, so sometimes we have a small dressing room, but others do it in the fool.
There have been times when other girls were sent away because they don’t look as good as their photos.
I have to look smiley, even when I have a huge wedgie on my buttocks
It may sound terrible, but I think it’s good – it comes down to it looks beautiful in the ring. It would be as if someone wants to be an accountant who cannot do mathematics.
I used to be a model before my best friend asked me to go with her. I love my work and don’t think it’s completely exploiting.
There are boxers who, for religious reasons, do not want us in the ring with them and that is fine.
And if there will be children in the show, we will cover more and wear leggings instead of poor shorts and long sleeves.
Suffer to be beautiful
There are days when I don’t feel my best. When I started for the first time, I only drank two days for a fight for two days.
I can’t do that anymore, but I am pretty careful with what I eat. I start my day with a cup of tea, but then I drink lemon water for the rest of the day.
I have a meal replacement shake and then a healthy supper. And I also train in the gym.
If I have a day that I feel blown up, I wear not one but two pairs of shapewear pants.
I have to look up there, while it feels like I have a huge wedgie on my buttocks.
I am just grateful that we are not allowed to wear stilettos – there is a concern that they would pierce the floor of the ring, so we wear block heels or trainers.
Crowd pleasant … or not
We are not just there to announce the round they make. We guide the boxers and go into the ring with them.
And we get the crowd enthusiastically, so we can blow back kisses to men they blow to us, or go inside and mix with people who want to take selfies with us.
We often stand in front of an audience of more than a thousand – the smallest location I do is around 700.
I held the wrong song or kept it upside down, even though I never drink at work
In general they are pretty good. When women are there, they are much more likely to scream abuse, as we call S ** GS. I can only remember one opportunity when a man screamed abuse against me, and then his girlfriend came to sit next to him and I realized why.
However, if that happens, I can talk to one of the promoters and people are removed – there is no reason why we have to tolerate abuse to do our work.
Danger zone
You must be prepared to be covered with blood, especially with a bald knuckle fight – and at the end you often get hug.
I always feel sorry for the loser, they will have trained for months and it is such a blow to their pride.
The crowd can start in a fight and I am almost touched by a beer bottle.
But my worst injury was during a Kooigevecht. I was there while they warmed up and one of the hunters accidentally pushed me and I ended up with my face against the bar.
Accident and chaos
I made so many mistakes in my years. I fell in the stairs that boxers showed inside and holding on to get stuck in the ring.
The first time I did it, I was so nervous. The other girl was
Delicious and very experienced and just told me to copy her walk. I looked like Bambi on skating, but I soon got used to it and now Sashhay as a professional.
I also stopped the wrong number for the round, whether it was upside down or even kept in the wrong direction – despite the fact that I never drink, although some girls can, it is not
generally prohibited.
I live out of fear of my breasts that dive out when I bend forward to get into the ring, so although I wear push -up bra’s, I make sure they are firm that will keep me in anything.
My other nightmare is when I am out of my period – our soils are so poor that we have cut the strings of our tampax so that they cannot be seen by accident.
For the love of it
Unless you are an absolute top ring girl, there is not much money in it.
I supplement my income by being an aesthetics, although I don’t do my own botox and lip fillers.
Some ring girls are with agents, but my best friend and I have great contacts, so we sort our own bookings and I could work every weekend if I wanted to.
If you use a desk, you might get to the larger fights, but there is a lot of competition.
And of course your agent will take a large part of your money and you will not get much unless it is a huge fight.
I am usually paid between £ 120 and £ 500. And the vast majority of the ring girls is the same as me.
But I think it’s great to do the work, so I don’t have any plans to give up.
And although I am 37, I am by no means the oldest ring girl – some are doing well in their forty.
It is a huge buzz that stands in the ring with everyone who cheers and claps and the atmosphere is great.
And I do it so long that I am friends with a part of the
Promoters and even the boxers. One of them I know very well and he finds it funny to lick my face after he has won. And I also like boxing.
Children’s gloves
Like every working single mother, it is a constant juggling act. But I am incredibly lucky with their fathers.
Caitlan, 18, and Kacy, 16, have the same father and Olivia, 10, has another, but both fathers are brilliant.
And their mothers have always been happy to help – they have “nan fun” weekends. However, I have been alienated from my own mother since I was 11, so she is not part of their lives.
I think it’s funny that my daughter’s friends have found my Instagram and always continue that I am Foxy,
Some promoters are happy that your children will come along, but I have never done that.
The crowds can become unmanageable and I do not want to risk their safety, how unlikely it is that they would be injured.
But I have always made quality time for them, they are my everything and when I am there, I am 100 percent present for them.
I have them all week and try to have a weekend
month with them. And if they are ever sick or need me, I will cancel my work to be with them.
Kacy is switched off. She was 10 weeks early and after six weeks old she received blood poisoning and meningitis.
So we have carers who help her because she needs someone 24 hours a day.
I don’t know if Caitlan or Olivia will follow in my footsteps and ring girls will be – neither of them are enthusiastic at the moment, but they think it is a “cool” task.
I think it’s funny that Caitlan’s friends have found my Instagram and always continue that I am Foxy.
However, she is not ashamed, she is good at Scherts and gives as good as she becomes.
Festival
I am friendly with some boxers and I know their ways.
For example, some of them hate to be spoken for a fight – they go into the zone and only focus on the fight. Others are nervous and want to chat.
I am actually very boring – I hardly drink and have three daughters, so I am not ready to party after a fight. I am usually out of all adrenaline and often have a three -hour drive home to Wrexham from the fight.
You hear about wild parties and girls who focus boxers. But I don’t really experience that scene, the most I did, then a few drinks went.
And in general these men are athletes who do not want to undo all their hard training by becoming legless.
At the end of the day we all worked hard and we want to come home to our beds … alone!
