Ronda Rousey headlined last night’s Strikforce event, and defended her title the best way she knows how – arm bar submission in the first round. It was an exciting :54 to say the least! Rousey maintained her perfect record, and also set-up the opportunity for the biggest women’s MMA match of the year by calling out Cris “Cyborg” Santos. Today the internet has been abuzz with editorials of last night’s fight, and about the emergence of women’s MMA as a mainstay. The question now is – does anyone really care that much?
Women’s MMA has really only emerged within the mainstream over the last few years. Since then there have been a few fighters that have made a name for themselves and have helped to gain the sport some notriety: Gina Carano, Cris Santos and Rousey to name a few. While there have been a few small promotions that have been dedicated to women’s MMA, Strikeforce has been the most notable organization to promote fights regularly (Strikeforce actually held the first female fight in 2006 with Carano headlining). When Strikeforce was bought up by the UFC, fans of women’s MMA around the world celebrated as they felt that it was only a matter of time before the sport would hit the big stage. To date, we have yet to see that happen.
Scott Coker, who is the lame-duck CEO of Strikeforce, has been a massive fan of female MMA – unfortunately, his new boss and UFC president (Dana White) has been less embracing of it. White has often been outspoken about the viability of women in MMA to draw a crowd. While White was cageside last night, a lot of his social media activity during the fight last night really showed how much time he devotes to learning about women’s MMA, e.g. “Wow! Now I know who Julie Kedzie is!!!”, tweeted White. Kedzie, by the way, is the No.1 contender now (equivelent to a Shogun or Machida).
The fact of the matter is, you’ll probably never see women’s MMA reach the UFC on a consistent basis; there are far too many pieces missing.
First off, you lack a deep enought talent pool to keep people engaged. As it stands right now, Rousey is probably one of the only big names in the sport that is currently active. It really is quite difficult for one fighter alone to carry the weight of an entire sport on her shoulders. Imagine the UFC being nothing but the middleweight division as it stands right now – how engaged do you think you would be to watch just Anderson Silva fight in a championship fight? Are there any other middleweight fighters that could really carry the headline on a card? Rousey is fun to watch, but she can only fight so many times in a year – and when she isn’t fighting, the sport is losing interest.
The next important factor to take into account is general interest in women’s sports. I am by no means trying to be sexist here, but there truthfully is not the same level of interest in women’s sports as there is for men’s – and this goes well beyond MMA. If you dispute this fact, how many people reading this article right now know if the WNBA still exists (it does, by the way)? Why has women’s boxing never gained the same numbers as men’s boxing? We live in a society unfortunately, where people show greater interest in male oriented sports, as such there is greater promotion of them. I won’t go into some of the reasons as to why I think this is the case, because I think it would take away from the point that is being made. It is just the reality.
I do hope that there is a chance for women’s MMA to survive. Anything that is going on out there for MMA, helps to grow the sport. You can’t grow a sport by limiting it.
I will however be honest – If you asked me if I would watch it occasionally, though I would say: “Yes.”
However, if you were to ask me if I would regularly watch women’s MMA, I would undoubtedly say: “No.”
… and that is the last word.
Follow me on Twitter – @lastwordmark
