Sydney Thomas, the viral ring girl who sent boxing fans wild during Jake Paul’s fight against Mike Tyson on Friday night, has opened up about her newfound fame.
The 20-year-old was thrust into the spotlight last week when fans dubbed her “the real winner” of the Netflix showdown after Paul and Tyson starred in a 16-minute snoozefest at AT&T Stadium.
The majority of the crowd in Arlington, Texas arrived hoping that 58-year-old boxing icon Tyson – who was the undisputed heavyweight champion of the world from 1987 to 1990 – would put YouTuber Paul in his place.
But many were left disappointed as the 27-year-old defeated the boxing legend by unanimous decision, with Thomas the only highlight for some.
The model and social media star was one of five ring girls working Friday’s event at AT&T Stadium, along with Virginia Sanhouse, Lexi Williams, Delia Sylvain and Raphaela Milagres.
And in the wake of her newfound popularity, Thomas has revealed that her social media inbox has been flooded with messages on Instagram and TikTok from her 350,000 new followers since the fight.
Ring girl Sydney Thomas went viral during Jake Paul’s victory over Mike Tyson last Friday
She shot into the spotlight when fans dubbed her ‘the real winner’ of the Netflix showdown
The 20-year-old opened up about her newfound fame and revealed her DMs were flooded
“My DMs are crazy flooded right now,” Thomas shared American weekly. “There have certainly been some pretty big names and brands that have reached out.”
“I woke up and saw how my followers had increased, and then saw all the news articles written about me,” Thomas added. “I refreshed my feed and it was just pictures of me and memes and stuff. I think for me that was the moment where I was like, “Oh my god, like I’m actually going viral.”
Thomas, a student at the University of Alabama, admitted the attention could be bewildering but insisted she was determined to find the silver lining.
“It’s 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 would be great, just the fact that it was streaming on Netflix and it was such an iconic fight. But I had no idea that all the attention would shift from the results to the ring girl as the main star of the event. That wasn’t even a thought in my head.’
Thomas is in her senior year of college, but takes her classes online to maintain a flexible class schedule.
And she revealed she plans to strike while the iron is hot and seize future opportunities amid her newfound popularity.
“I think the next step for me is to continue to build up my social media and keep working with it [Paul’s] Most Valuable Promotions and being a ring girl,” she said. “I think I should take the ring girl and modeling aspect of my life and share that with my audience that I’ve built now.”
Thomas added, “And then of course continue with school, graduate, get my degree and then see where things take me.”