Ultimate Fighting Championship President Dana White stated in a brief interview with TMZ that women would never fight in the UFC. He would later go back on that statement, resulting in the creation of the women’s bantamweight division.
This past weekend, former Strikeforce Bantamweight champion and Olympic Bronze medalist “Rowdy” Rhonda Rousey fought Liz Carmouche for the inaugural UFC Women’s Bantamweight belt.
Rousey won the fight by first round armbar submission (how she has won all of her seven professional bouts) to become the first woman to hold a UFC title. Though the result is important because a recognized name like Rousey is front and center in the world of women’s mixed martial arts, what needs to be emphasized is that the fight actually occurred in the first place.
MMA is fueled by an aura of ultimate masculinity. There is much appeal to the idea of two men, fighting toe-to-toe in a pure test of physical and mental strength. This construct is what has made mixed martial arts one of the fastest growing sports worldwide. But, until this point, only men have been seen as “marketable” fighters. Rousey changed that Saturday night.
Rousey was essentially a house-hold name before she embarked on a career in MMA, only helping her potential star power. She is a two-time Olympian, and the first American woman to ever medal in the Judo competition. As a supremely accomplished athlete and dangerous fighter, she is the perfect ambassador for female mixed martial artists everywhere.
In a global brand like the UFC, the sky is the limit for Rousey (assuming she keeps winning), but she is opening doors and knocking down barriers for women as she goes. Currently, the UFC only has one weight class for woman, and Rousey and Carmouche are the only fighters on the roster. But now that she has cemented herself as the best and most noticeable fighter in women’s MMA, I would imagine that there will be no shortage of challengers who want a piece of the fame and recognition that Rousey just achieved.
One might say that one fight in a male-controlled sport does not change anything, and there is some truth to that claim. MMA for the foreseeable future will be carried by male fighters, simply because those fighters have already established themselves. But it would be ignorant to think that, given time, Rousey or any other woman fighter could not achieve the same things as their male counterparts.
Because of the attention this fight received for its shear uniqueness, it is not hard to imagine women breaking down barriers in other sports as well. Sure, there are the occasional “feel-good” stories of a woman wrestler competing against men, and stories like that. But I am talking large-scale here, like creation of more professional leagues for women’s sports scale.
With this historic and monumental fight, the sports world could be in the midst of a shift in mindset. There are more female icons in sports than at any other time in history, with the likes of US Soccer stars Abby Wambach and Alex Morgan, NASCAR’s Danica Patrick, skier Lindsey Vonn, and tennis star Serena Williams gracing us with their displays of athletic excellence. Hopefully Rousey will be mentioned in the same breath. And if she has anything to say about, it will be sooner rather than later.
