This story is so goofy even The UG Blog refused to cover it. Then it made the homepage of CNN.com.
The mainstream media didn’t bother trying to treat the matter with even a modicum of journalistic integrity:
•CNN: “MMA fighter’s breasts too big to fight?“
•NY Post: “The MMA fighter held back by double-D breasts“
•UK’s Metro: “MMA fighter Brye Anne Russillo forced to fight in heavier division because of her breasts”
Every article in the mainstream press referred to Bryeanne Russillo as an MMA fighter. She is in reality an engaging pastry chef and amateur kickboxer, who trained with coach Eric “BloodAxe” Olsen, at Valhalla Muay Thai, in Huntington Station, New York.
Russillo’s first bout was in a cage, under kickboxing rules. She aggressively checked her opponent’s body kick, causing a leg injury, and thus earning the win.
In her second bout, in Delaware. she was stopped.
Russillo was in training for a third bout, and did an interview with the excellent Kyle Carroll for MyMMANews. Russillo is mediagenic, wears an F-cup bra, and told Carroll that the twins’ extra weight made it tough to make her opponent’s weight division.
I can’t cut my tits off and put them on the side, they weigh 12 pounds, quipped the quick-witted Russillo to Carroll. The international coverage began immediately, with calls for interviews globally.
It’s not like I have a pink sparkly shelf to put them on, she said to The Post. I’m trying to lose weight, but my boobs are what they are. I went to pastry school and I’m Italian, so I ate a lot of cannolis.
The only reason I’m even fighting at 150 is because my tits weigh 12 pounds. … I put makeup remover on them and then sit in the sauna, because someone told me that it opens your pores and helps you sweat. Then I’ll put hemorrhoid creme on them and wrap them over night. I start doing this three nights before the fight. I’m doing the best I can.”
I’m a single mom who, later in life, decided to try and get back in shape. I’ve been a career bartender for 12 years. I was drinking a lot and partying while I was at work. Now I train and don’t drink, and I’m actively trying to better my life.
It took three months to reach agreement for Russillo to fight American Top Team’s Paige DiBartolo at Aggressive Combat Championship 12, at a 150-pound catchweight. DiBartolo normally fights around 145, and Russillo at 155.
It’s hard to imagine a more mundane story in the fight game than a 1-1 kickboxer moving down five pounds to a catchweight. But add boobs, and it’s big international news, miscategorized as MMA.
Here is the fight. Russillo fought gamely, but lost a unanimous decision.
DiBartolo won the ACC catchweight championship. Of course, there isn’t such a thing as a catchweight championship, but it sounds neat. Russillo, although amateur, is paid a percentage of ticket sales, and donated them to charity.
She next switched gyms to Bobby Campbell’s Kickboxing and fought again in 2018, losing a unanimous decision to Sharneka Wright.
Russillo says she’s retired, but could come back at any time, as she so much enjoys punching faces.
Today, Bryeanne Russillo is living her best life with the bearded mountain man of her dreams in upstate Vermont.
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