MMA star Gina Carano is one of the cover subjects of ESPN The Magazine’s new “Body Issue,” captured in an eye-opening image in which she is seen topless (with her left arm discreetly covering her breasts) and displaying quite an assortment of abdominal muscles.

Before Tuesday night’s Women’s Sports Foundation dinner at the Waldorf I asked her what she thought of how it came out.

“I’m a very shy individual,” she said. “I did like it, but I don’t really show off my body that much. It was a shocker. My whole family was like, ‘OK, OK, is that it? No more.’ I was like, ‘Yeah, no more, no more.’

“I did love being a part of it because it was such a unique issue with a bunch of different people’s bodies. I’m a curvy person. I’ve got meat on me. Maybe, hopefully, little girls out there see my body and can be inspired by that, too. It gives them something else to look at.

“It was all good. But I’m just a shy person, so it’s a little bit hard. It was beautiful, but I’m shy. No more. I’m going to keep my clothes on for a while, I think.”

Carano said she was honored to be included in the Foundation’s 30th annual dinner fundraiser.

“Last year I came here and my sport wasn’t really recognized, but I was so inspired by all the female stories and just being around it that I was like, ‘I really hope I get an invitation next year,’ just to represent my sport, to be a part of it. I feel really blessed to be a part of it.”

Source: Newsday.com