Sophie Cunningham’s finger point at DeWanna Bonner might have been the “stupidest thing” she’s ever done, in her own words. But it’s turned her into a genuine cultural phenomenon. The gesture had already made the rounds from the White House  to WWE by the time her latest crossover happened. This weekend, she added a new one by stepping into the Octagon as a ring card girl at UFC 329 in Las Vegas.

It wasn’t planned. Cunningham was simply in the building and UFC CEO Dana White later explained how it came together with almost no notice at all.

“We’ve created a relationship, and she was here tonight,” White told reporters after the event. “When she walked in, she goes, ‘Oh, I wanna walk around that.'”

That casual request turned into a full ring girl routine roughly eight minutes later. Cunningham walked the card for round one of the Paddy Pimblett-Benoit Saint Denis co-main event in an all-black outfit, then delivered her now-signature move, the same silent, 22-second point she used on Bonner in June, this time aimed straight into the T-Mobile Arena crowd. The moment didn’t last long on the fight card itself; Pimblett submitted Saint Denis in 52 seconds. But it lasted plenty long on social media.

“Sophie Cunningham ring girl for #UFC329 is crazy, 🤣” UFC reporter Matt Moscona wrote. “Sophie Cunningham should become permanent Octagon girl #UFC329,” Adam Martin pitched in.

That reaction fit the scale of the card she’d just stepped into. UFC 329 was headlined by Conor McGregor’s long-awaited return after a five-year layoff, a fight that ended almost as fast as Cunningham’s cameo, with McGregor appearing to injure his knee and losing to Max Holloway by TKO just 69 seconds in. Against that backdrop, a WNBA guard walking the Octagon still managed to become one of the weekend’s bigger talking points.

Cunningham has to get back to basketball soon enough. She was in Las Vegas ahead of Indiana’s road game against the Aces, and the timing of the UFC card falling on the same trip is likely why this cameo was even possible in the first place. It’s also very on-brand for her. Between her following across the WNBA and the modeling world, she’s become exactly the kind of crossover personality events like this one tend to look for.

This isn’t her first rodeo outside basketball either. Cunningham served as the honorary pace car driver at the NASCAR Cup Series Championship in Phoenix last November, a weekend that also produced a viral moment with actress Sydney Sweeney. She’s kept up her modeling career too, recently making her debut in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue. Cunningham shared the official photos from that shoot, taken at South Seas Resort on Captiva Island, Florida, with the caption, “year 1 with @si_swimsuit, AHHHH!”

As fun as all of it has been off the court, it would be a mistake to treat Cunningham’s basketball as an afterthought to the memes.

Sophie Cunningham Can Take More Responsibility At The Indiana Fever

Cunningham’s 2025 season ended early. She was averaging 8.6 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting a career-best 43.2% from three before tearing her MCL, an injury that kept her out of the playoffs entirely. Her return to Indiana wasn’t guaranteed either, with her contract situation unresolved for a stretch of the offseason before she ultimately re-signed out of loyalty to the team and the city.

This season has been a clear step forward. Cunningham is averaging around 9.5 points, 2.5 rebounds, and 1.4 assists a game, shooting close to 49% from the field and better than 42% from three, numbers that make her one of the more efficient bench scorers in the league. Despite that, she was left off the 2026 All-Star reserve list entirely, still without a selection through eight WNBA seasons.

She’s mostly done this work off the bench, coming off it in the vast majority of her appearances this year while Stephanie White leans on Kelsey Mitchell, Aliyah Boston, and Caitlin Clark as the team’s primary scoring options. But her track record suggests she could handle more than a bench role if White ever needed her to. Across her career, Cunningham has actually posted better numbers as a starter, averaging 10.2 points, 3.4 rebounds, and 1.8 assists in those appearances, compared to her production off the bench.

Whether that shift happens probably comes down to what Indiana needs more: her spark off the bench, or her shooting and experience from the opening tip. Either way, the version of Cunningham showing up on WNBA courts this season looks a lot sharper than the one who watched last year’s playoffs from the sideline.