NO, SHE wasn’t throwing punches in the ring.

But 91.3 radio deejay Cheryl Miles was still the centre of attention at the Professional Championship Boxing event at Suntec City over the weekend.

The former actress-singer was a ring card girl for one of the night’s four matches, between Singaporean fighter Mohamed Nor Rizan and China’s Mao Yijun.

Cheryl, 34, told The New Paper that she was interested in being part of the event – not because she’s a boxing fan, but because she wanted to support Nor Rizan, who returned to the ring last week after three years away from the sport.

The opportunity to be part of the event came last November, when Mr Scott Mallon – the vice-president of event organiser Top Rated Boxing – was a guest on 91.3’s morning show, which she hosts with Jeremy Ratnam, Boy Thunder and Jonathan Atherton.

“It started off as a tease, me asking if I could be in the ring, but later, he called me and asked if I was interested,” said Cheryl.

She was not paid for her appearance at the event.

Cheryl, with her early morning shifts, hardly had time to think of “special preparations” for the event.

Glamour girl

She only realised late last week that she had to shave her legs if she was to wear a skirt on stage.

“This is how I usually dress for work,” she said, pointing to her sweat pants and pullover. “And I really have to get my hair done.”

But on Saturday night, it was a very glamorous and totally smooth-legged Cheryl who turned up at Suntec City.

She wore a cropped 91.3 T-shirt and a black mini-skirt which she said was from her “collection of showgirl outfits”.

Needless to say, she was worried about entering the ring in her skimpy attire, which involved some body contortion between the ringside ropes.

Cheryl ended up going into the ring six times during Nor Rizan’s match, each time introduced by the ring announcer as “the very sexy Cheryl Miles”.

Asked how she felt being gawked at, she giggled nervously: “Well, as a performer, of course any response is encouraging.”

While she hemmed and hawed modestly when asked to rate her own performance – “eight and a half?” – she was candid about the night’s other ring card girls.

“If there are more matches coming to Singapore, then there’s definitely a future for ring girls. But maybe they need some training first,” she said.

“Oh dear, I sound so bitchy. But I bothered to do my nails, I got my hair and make-up done, I was even wearing false eyelashes. The other girls did nothing.”

But Cheryl did have something to shout about on the night.

In the end, her hero Nor Rizan beat Mao in six rounds on points.

This article was first published in The New Paper.