Sydney Thomas, the viral ring girl who sent boxing fans wild during Jake Paul’s fight against Mike Tyson Friday night, has opened up on her newfound fame.
The 20-year-old rocketed into the spotlight last week when fans hailed her ‘the real winner’ of the Netflix showdown after Paul and Tyson starred in a 16-minute snooze fest at AT&T Stadium.
The majority of the crowd in Arlington, Texas arrived hoping to see 58-year-old boxing icon Tyson – who was the undisputed world heavyweight champion from 1987 to 1990 – put YouTuber Paul in his place.
But many were left disappointed when the 27-year-old beat the boxing legend by unanimous decision with Thomas the sole highlight for some.
The model and social media star was one of five ring girls working at Friday’s event at AT&T Stadium – along with Virginia Sanhouse, Lexi Williams, Delia Sylvain and Raphaela Milagres.
And in the wake of her fresh popularity, Thomas has revealed that her social media inbox has been inundated with messages on Instagram and TikTok from her 350,000 new followers since the bout.
Ring girl Sydney Thomas went viral during Jake Paul’s win over Mike Tyson last Friday
She rocketed into the spotlight when fans hailed her ‘the real winner’ of the Netflix showdown
The 20-year-old opened up on her newfound fame, revealing her DMs have been inundated
‘My DMs are just insanely flooded right now,’ Thomas told US Weekly. ‘There’s definitely been some pretty big names and brands that have reached out.’
‘I woke up and saw how my followers had gone up, and then saw all the news articles that had been written about me,’ Thomas added. ‘I refreshed my feed and it was just pictures of me and memes and everything. I think that was the moment for me where I was like, “Oh my gosh, like I really am going viral.”‘
Thomas, a student at the University of Alabama, admitted the attention could be staggering but insisted that she was determined to find the silver lining.
‘It is very overwhelming,’ she said. ‘But at the same time, I’m also very blessed and very grateful. You know, what a problem to have.
‘I knew the exposure was going to be awesome, just the fact that it was being streamed on Netflix and it was such an iconic fight. But I had no idea that all the focus was going to shift from the results to the ring girl being the main star of the event. That was not even a thought in my head going into it.’
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Ring girl Sydney Thomas shares new photos from Mike Tyson-Jake Paul fight as fans hail 'real winner'
Thomas is in her senior year of college but has been taking her classes online in order to keep a flexible schedule.
And she revealed that she intends to strike while the iron is hot and seize future opportunities amid her newfound popularity.
‘I think what’s next for me is to continue building up my social media and continue working with [Paul’s] Most Valuable Promotions and being a ring girl,’ she expressed. ‘I think dialing into the ring girl and modeling aspect of my life and sharing that with my audience that I’ve now built up.’
Thomas added, ‘And then obviously continuing with school, graduating, getting my degree and then seeing where things take me from there.’