Sophie Cunningham is a black belt who isn’t going to have any trouble being Caitlin Clark’s enforcer.
It looks like Caitlin Clark and Sophie Cunningham are going to get along just fine after all. It was a little touch and go there for a minute when the face of the WNBA was calling out her hot teammates over their tanning habits.
That proved to be nothing more than a playful back-and-forth between Clark, Cunningham, and Lexie Hull. The Indiana Fever teammates have bigger fish to fry in the form of their opponents, who keep going after Clark with hard fouls.
Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) and Connecticut Sun guard Jacy Sheldon (4) scrap, leading to Cunningham and Sheldon being ejected. (Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
The rest of the WNBA learned on Tuesday night that going after Clark without repercussions was coming to an end. Cunningham, who said after she was traded to the Fever in the off-season that she was going to stick up for Clark, did just that.
Late in the Fever’s 88-71 win over the Connecticut Sun, Cunningham embraced the role of enforcer and took down Sun guard Jacy Sheldon with a hard foul.
Sheldon had poked Clark in the eye earlier in the game and a skirmish followed where the Fever star – some say, flopped – ended up on the floor.
Sophie Cunningham is a legit dual threat who can hold her own in the tunnel and as an enforcer
In addition to learning that the hard fouls on Clark going unanswered had officially come to an end, the league learned there’s more to Sophie Cunningham than pre-game modeling.
Yes, she’s good at that, but she’s also a “farm strong” badass who became a black belt at the age of six. She grew up having bloody battles with her older sister Lindsey.
Cunningham even filled in for the kicker on her high school’s football team, as documented in this SEC Network piece on the Missouri alum.
Long story short, Cunningham isn’t going to have any trouble being Caitlin Clark’s enforcer.
She’s tough, she’s a badass, and as you can see in the video of her and Sheldon going at it after her hard foul, she knows what she’s doing.
Cunningham skillfully grabbed the back of Sheldon’s neck. She was prepared for anything that was going to come her way.
Lucky for Sheldon, she didn’t have to break out any of her black belt skills on her ass.