Have you ever wondered just how ring card girls are chosen? This doesn't really answer your question since this isn't, to my knowledge, standard procedure, but here's a little teaser of what's coming up on Showtime's Fight Camp 360 for the May 7 fight between Manny Pacquiao and Shane Mosley.
I think it's interesting that with UFC, they've made the ring girls like Arianny Celeste celebrities themselves, with Celeste appearing in a ton of magazines, including Playboy and Sports Illustrated, while boxing's ring girls are just anonymous hot bodies holding up cards with numbers on them, and you never know anything about them. There might be something there for promotional companies like Top Rank and Golden Boy, or for networks like Showtime and HBO, marketing ring girls as something more than just brief eye candy. It's not like I've ever been distracted by them while watching UFC, but obviously there's some money in the role and the job if UFC keeps featuring them the way they do.
I realize I'm advocating some form of crass commercialism, but hey, if Jenny Slater from Hoboken can be part of a Showtime or HBO boxing brand, then what's it hurt? (I also realize this at least partially flies in the face of my Paris Hilton post from not too long ago, but I admitted then that I did that for the traffic - yeah! - the traffic - yeah! - and frankly will admit the same in this instance. My hypocrisy knows no bounds.)