Ring girl Sydney Thomas has reacted to going viral following the Jake Paul vs Mike Tyson fight.
While the action in the ring largely disappointed, some boxing fans on social media highlighted the 20-year-old as "the real winner" after discovering newfound fame alongside fellow ring girls Virginia Sanhouse, Lexi Williams, Delia Sylvain and Raphaela Milagres.
Thomas' Instagram following reportedly skyrocketed from 236,000 to over 695,000 in the days after the Texas bout, and now boasts almost one million followers on TikTok.
She told US Weekly: "My DMs are just insanely flooded right now. 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.
My DMs are just insanely flooded right now. There’s definitely been some pretty big names
"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 is in the final year as a student at the University of Alabama but is taking classes online to help manage her newfound fame, and is looking to continue her career as a ring girl for Paul's Most Valuable Promotions.
"It is very overwhelming," she added. "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.
"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. 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.
"And then obviously continuing with school, graduating, getting my degree and then seeing where things take me from there."
