DANA WHITE has slammed the “ridiculous” calls from a politician to ban Octagon girls for UFC 243.

Similar to boxing, mixed martial arts deploys scantily-clad females to parade around the cage prior to each round at their events.

4 Dana White has slammed an Aussie MP's attempts to ban Octagon girls as 'ridiculous' Credit: Getty Images

4 Octagon Girls Chrissy Blair, Brittney Palmer, and Arianny Celeste could be stopped from working in Melbourne Credit: Getty

That has led to the likes of the beautiful Chrissy Blair, Brittney Palmer, Arianny Celeste and Jhenny Andrade all becoming huge favourites with fight fans across the globe.

But the much-loved girls could be banned from a UFC event in Australia next week after Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp claimed the “sexist and backward” tradition was “outdated”.

Ahead of the spectacular at Melbourne’s Marvel Stadium on October 6, she had said: “It's 2019, do we really still need scantily clad women to wander around the middle of a fighting ring between rounds?

“Grid girls are no longer part of Formula One, walk-on girls are no longer part of professional darts - surely it's time to move on.”

However, UFC president White has hit back at those comments and insists the girls are just as much of the show as the fighters.

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The 50-year-old told The Daily Telegraph: “Our Octagon girls, they’re as much a part of the UFC brand as anyone, they’re ambassadors for our sport.

“So for someone who has absolutely no education whatsoever about who these girls are – about what they do, what they mean to the UFC – to start going off, it’s ridiculous.

“So you can look at any sport you like, nobody treats women better than we do. And I’d suggest these people calling on them to be banned go have a look at what these girls do with the company, the type of money they’re making.

“Do that and you’ll realise these girls are as important to our brand as anyone else in the company. And that’s exactly the way we treat them.”

Grid girls were banned from last year’s F1 Grand Prix in Melbourne with walk-on girls later being axed from the darts world championships.

The attempted stand against UFC comes after ring girls were barred for a bumper boxing event last month in the city Down Under.

Former world champ Jeff Horn lost to Michael Zerafa at the Battle of Bendigo in Victoria, but the bash's promoters decided to replace the females with a man to perform the pre-round duties following fierce criticism from councillors and women's advocacy groups.

Trio Tammy Bills, Demey Maconachie and Kalista Thomas were all axed in favour of “fight progress managers” – a man in trousers and a shirt.

Local councillor Yvonne Wrigglesworth had argued beforehand “stereotypes of this nature was not respectful of women”.

Ring girls get to travel the world with UFC and reportedly earn around £20,000-a-year for their part-time work with the promotion, with many going on to secure modelling contracts and other TV work.

4 The role of an Octagon girl has been blasted as 'outdated and sexist' Credit: Getty