CHLOE ELLMAN-BAKER is following in the footsteps of her mother as she prepares to ring girl for the biggest fight of her career.
Chloe, 23, will be helping run the show as Anthony Joshua returns to the ring on Saturday to take on Jermaine Franklin at the O2 in London.
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Chloe will be entering the ring alongside fellow ring girl and close friend Alissa King-Underwood.
But she is not the first from her family to take up the profession of ring girling.
Chloe’s mum, Julie, 57, also worked for Matchroom and was a ring girl during Chris Eubank Sr’s 1992 WBO super-middleweight title win against Ron Essett as well as his fight against Nigel Benn in 1993.
Julie also won a total of 13 beauty competitions as well as completing a modelling course with the Vogue modelling agency.
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She was crowned Miss Worthing and Miss Eastbourne within four days of each other in 1984 and Miss Brighton in 1986 as well as many other titles.
Chloe told SunSport: “My mum was actually one of the core Matchroom ring girls when she was 24, she worked for Barry Hearn and now it is a bit crazy that I work for Barry’s son (Eddie Hearn).
“I have a picture of her bringing out a flag at a [Chris] Eubank fight.
“I remember first calling my mum up when I first ever got a Matchroom job and I was like should I take this, and she was like ‘Oh my god Chloe it’s Matchroom’.
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“I actually saw Barry at an event the other week and I FaceTimed my mum while I was with him and I was like ‘mum do you want to say hi’.
“The first time I ever met Barry, he came up to me to say hello and said ‘say hello to your mum’, so I called her and told her that Barry Hearn says hello.
“He recognised me straight away without asking my name, so I must look like my mum.”
Just like Julie, Chloe has also won beauty competitions, taking the titles for Miss Teen Diamond United Kingdom in 2019, as well as the Teen Miss Regency International in 2020 in Las Vegas.
In 2022, the Brighton babe also won the Top model of England and the Queen of Europe in Egypt.
Now managed by SBJ Management, Chloe insisted that while she did not get “any links” from her mum, Julie’s career did inspire her to go into the business.
She added: “You know what it is, she has a massive collage of all the big events she has been too, the celebrities she has met over the years and it has been up for a very long time.
“I will always ask her questions about it and she said. ‘oh well Chloe I have decided to go into the promotional world and that is how I landed all these big jobs and events’, so that was really a conversation starter for us.
“I thought while I am at this age and I can do all these really cool glamourous jobs, I want to do what my mum did.
“So I didn’t get any links from her in regards to Matchroom, it was just pure coincidence and been the same on a few jobs as I work with the British Touring Cars as well.
“Mum is really close with Jason Plato and she worked with him and last year I worked with him too.”
BIGGEST NIGHT OF CAREER
Chloe has insisted that AJ’s fight against Franklin is the biggest of her ring girl career so far, as well as jokingly suggesting she has got one over her mum.
She said: “This one is definitely the biggest, it even tops the ones my mum done when she was at Matchroom.
“So I was like ‘I am going to get one up on you mum’.
“It is like a pinch-me moment.
“The biggest to date that I had was the Joe Cordina fight in Wales, it was my first ever ring girl job and I did not really know what to expect.
“But my now best friend Alessi (also ring girling at the AJ fight) was helping out and teaching me the ways.
“It was an incredible fight and an amazing knockout from Joe Cordina, the atmosphere was electric, it got me so buzzing I did not sleep that night at all.
“I text my mum asking if I should just drive home from Wales as I was not going to get any sleep.”
PROUD MUM
Julie could not be prouder of her daughter as she said: “I am incredibly proud that Chloe is a ring girl at the AJ fight on Saturday.
“I remember those days so clearly, from the weigh-ins to the electric atmosphere of the nights. It was great working for Barry Hearn and now Chloe is working for his son Eddie.
“Modelling promotions and beauty pageants create a fun, varied life which includes travelling and meeting such interesting people from all walks of life.
“But it does not last forever so I am also very proud that she has a degree in Architecture and Interior Design to fall back on.”
Chloe graduated from Portsmouth University with a first-class degree and for a time worked at a company while also working as a ring girl and grid girl at the British Touring Cars.
On the fight itself, Chloe is backing AJ to return to winning ways as well as revealing what the 33-year-old is like outside of the ring.
She said: “I don’t think I should say, but let’s be honest who does not love Anthony Joshua, I know he is an absolute beast in the ring.
“He is such a gentleman outside of the ring. I met him a few fights ago when I was last ring girling last, and he is such a down-to-earth guy and I had a proper chat with him.
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“He always has time for you, which is lovely.
“I am really excited, I think he is going to smash it on fight night and I can’t wait to see him in action as this is my first AJ fight.”
Source: Boxing - thesun.co.uk
