Las Vegas Sun

March 19, 2024

No. 4: The Ring Girl: Logan Stanton breaks mold for UFC models

UFC 98

Tiffany Brown

UFC Octagon girls, from left, Arianny Celeste, Edith Labelle and Logan Stanton entertain themselves between bouts at UFC 98 at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on Saturday, May 23, 2009.

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UFC Octagon girl Arianny Celeste provides even more electricity to an exciting atmosphere in December 2008 during the UFC's end-of-the-year show at the MGM Grand.

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Editor's Note: The Ultimate Fighting Championship is celebrating its 100th show on July 11 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center. In the days leading up to this historic night, the Las Vegas Sun is presenting a Top 10 list of key personalities and points that have helped propel the sport into the forefront of the world's fighting conscience.

To say Logan Stanton was a little shocked when she found out that UFC president Dana White wanted to meet with her, is a flat out understatement.

The 20-year-old model knew White from watching UFC events at various spots in Miami, but obviously she thought that the UFC’s curvy tastes in Octagon girls didn’t exactly match her slender frame.

“Dana called up my agency and requested I meet with him. I was kind of unsure why at the time,” Stanton said recalling the life-changing meeting with a little laugh.

“But he sat me down and told me he was looking for a new Octagon girl and they would love for me to do it. The stereotypical ring girl is not something I necessarily wanted to be, so I fought back and forth with whether I wanted to do it or not and whether it was good for my image all of that kind of stuff.”

Her answer came at her first event, the stacked UFC 92 card in December in Las Vegas.

“It turns out it was great. I absolutely love it,” Stanton said. “I remember having the biggest smile on my face all night long.”

Stanton, a self-admitted tomboy at heart, has provided a different dynamic to the duo of UFC beauties she joined in Arianny Celeste an Edith Labelle.

“Everybody is pretty unique. Logan is very professional, very fun, but still has that young silliness to her that’s kind of refreshing,” said Octagon mom Leslie Hedges, who handles everything from hair and make-up work to bodyguard duties.

“Logan is totally not the cookie-cutter ring girl. The other two are worried about presenting their hair and make-up in a certain way, where Logan will come in and say ‘I don’t want to do my hair, I don’t want to do my make-up.’

“She’ll walk around fight week without make-up, just throw on the clothes and chill.”

The Canadian-based Labelle jokingly confirms Stanton’s rebel-like approach.

“She is really different from me and Arianny, which is fun. She's not a girly-girl like us,” said Labelle, whose says her biggest highlights while wearing the skimpy uniform came at UFC 83 and UFC 97 in her native Montreal.

“No, Logan is a real sweetheart.”

While the trio’s main responsibility is obviously to look hot, Hedges says her girls help energize the crowd when they make their rounds in between rounds.

“The majority of the time with contact sports you have girls involved. Men love two things: sports and women,” says Hedges, who is also in charge of World Extreme Cagefighting girls Christie Cartwright and Brittney Palmer.

“They kind of egg the fans on and keep them riled up. Obviously they give you something to look at between rounds, but they also provide a little extra energy.”

While Stanton has provide that extra pizazz as the “newbie” to her red-robed sisters, the girls will have to make room in their stable for one more model come Saturday afternoon when the UFC/Maxim magazine crown the winner of the first-ever Octagon Girl contest.

“It’s exciting, and obviously there’s always room for another girl,” Stanton said. “Who knows, she might even be a little different like me.”

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