Story about woman fighter’s breasts makes cover of CNN
“I can’t cut my tits off and put them on the side, they weigh 12 pounds,” said Brye Anne Russillo in discussing the need for a catchweight at 150.
The story is so stupid we wouldn’t cover it, and then it made the cover of CNN. How do you treat this story with even a modicum of decency towards the fighter and women in combat sports?
•NY Post: “The MMA fighter held back by double-D breasts“
•New York’s Daily News: “Amateur MMA fighter says big breasts are making life hard for her in the ring“
•UK’s Metro: “MMA fighter Brye Anne Russillo forced to fight in heavier division because of her breasts“
•CNN: “MMA fighter’s breasts too big to fight?“
Every article in the mainstream press refers to Brye Anne Russillo as an MMA fighter, but she is an amateur kickboxer. Dumbasses can’t get even get the sport right in their drooling inanity.
The debate centers on making a catchweight.
Russillo says her breasts are forcing her to fight in a heavier weight division.
It’s not like I can take a nail file and hack off my tits, she said to The Post, after first discussing the matter with Kyle Carroll for MyMMANews.
It’s not like I have a pink sparkly shelf to put them on. 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 t–s weigh 12 pounds.”
I put makeup remover on [my breasts] 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 over three months for the two teams to agree to fight at 150-pounds with Paige Lian. Lian normally fights around 145, and Russillo normally fights around 155. Russillo also mentioned she plans to enter the cage for her next fight at 135.
So Russillo fights at 155, spent three months negotiating to fight at 150 with a 145er, and plans to fight at 135 her next fight. And this all for kickboxing.
And it makes national news, categorized as MMA.
Russillo is a 29-year-old mother of one, who works as a bartender and pastry chef. She is 1-1 as an amateur kickboxer. She is photogenic, and has breasts that are larger than normal.
How has this become international news? MMA is sport in which participants get a cage door locked behind them, and fight until one is asleep or quits. That’s a little nuts. But the coverage of this one is, actually, nuts.
Brye Anne Russillo fights Paige Lian at Aggressive Combat Championships 12 at The Queens Theater in Flushing Meadow Park, NY on October 3, 2015. Tickets sold out the last time. So get yours before midnight tonight.