When we talk about people making huge leaps and bounds within the sport of MMA, fighters are most commonly the subject. In this case, we will highlight the hard work and journey of Connecticut's Sophia Halidis, the newest addition to the Bellator MMA Ring Girl Team. For years, Sophia was a familiar face at regional combat sports events, especially CES events. This is where her ring girl career began and blossomed. She spent about 6 years working for local MMA promotions and gaining experience while having a very busy life behind the scenes as well. Recently, Sophia inked a deal with one of the largest promotions in the world, Bellator MMA. Sophia can now be seen working at each and every domestic Bellator event.
At the age of 18, Sophia became a bartender at Foxwoods Resort and Casino to get her resume going but also make money for herself, of course. While working there, she came across many opportunities for things like televised commercials, TV promotions, and modeling too. She never looked past new opportunities and did a lot of work to build her stock and set up for a bright future. She worked for Big Night Entertainment Group at Foxwoods for close to 12 years years! From ages 18-28, Sophia was a staple to the line-up of bartenders. About 4 years in, Sophia began to be scouted by local MMA/boxing promotions after seeing how much work she did in things like commercials, promotions, and modeling. They saw her potential and immediately wanted Sophia to be apart of their shows.
At the age of 22, Sophia made her day debut, beginning her ring girl career. Under the bright lights at Twin River Casino (Lincoln, RI), she was there working with Jimmy Burchfield's Classic Entertainment and Sports (CES) when "The Pride of Providence", Peter Manfredo Jr. was headlining a major boxing card. She fell in love with her newfound career and began to settle into the "ring girl life". This may have been her first show, but the passion sure did spark and after that, Sophia worked at other CES shows. For about 6 years, she was apart of CES, working some of their shows as a ring girl. She gained experience and still took advantage of many opportunities that came her way, adding things to her resume and preparing for bigger opportunities that would eventually come her way.
During the COVID era (2020), Sophia made a huge gamble considering the global situation, as a pandemic was in full effect. She bought Family Pizza Restaurant of Niantic, CT from her uncles, the previous owners for 33 years. During this time, many businesses suffered and had a lot to deal with, so actually going and buying a business during that time could've definitely been a scary thing to do. Now, here in 2023, Family Pizza Restaurant is flourishing and thriving, providing patrons with a large, beautiful dining area on top of their take-out option. The restaurant has a 4.5 star rating on Google, meaning the service and food speaks for itself! Sophia invests a lot of her time into her restaurant on top of her busy life traveling the country working as Bellator MMA's domestic ring girl.
In 2022, the call that Sophia had dreamed of, finally came. That happened to be the call from Bellator MMA letting Sophia Halidis know that all of her years of work and fulfilled opportunities had paid off and Bellator wanted Sophia as their domestic ring girl. This meant that Sophia would get to travel to all fight weeks and events that Bellator hosted inside the US. Of course, Sophia was up for the new beginning and immediately began to prepare for her first show that millions of people would see throughout countless different countries. The years of modeling, appearing in commercials/promos, and being a fantastic ring girl in general had finally presented Sophia the biggest opportunity of her life.
On June 24, 2022, Sophia made her first Bellator appearance at Bellator 282: Eblen vs. Mousasi, right here in her home state of Connecticut at Mohegan Sun Casino. This card also featured the semi-final round of the Bantamweight World Grand Prix as well as the second fight back for Connecticut's most-feared Welterweight, Brennan Ward. On top of this stacked main card, the preliminary card was also fantastic featuring fighters like Lucas Brennan, Aaron Jeffrey, Cat Zingano, and more. This card was one of the best that Mohegan Sun had seen in awhile. Just about 20 minutes down the road from her house, this was Sophia's first show with one of the biggest MMA promotions in the world. What a great way to kick things off! As you would expect, Sophia did a fantastic job during her first ever fight week and immediately became a huge part of Bellator being the one and only ring girl at all the shows she's worked since. She continues to travel and leaves for Bellator's huge doubleheader fight week in Hawaii in just a couple days! Sophia will check off two more events, Bellator 294: Carmouche vs. Bennett 2, and Bellator 295: Stots vs. Mix while in Hawaii. We are one week away from fight week, be sure to tune into Bellator MMA and see Sophia Halidis LIVE from Hawaii!
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