Outside of the proposition of a potential super-fight between Anderson Silva and Georges St. Pierre (or Jon Jones) the hottest topic in MMA as of late has been that of women fighters entering the UFC. Ronda Rousey’s recent string of dominant performances, and subsequent press coverage has made her an ideal poster-girl. And we have even seen UFC boss, Dana White, soften his stance accordingly. My question about women’s MMA in the UFC is: publicity stunt or is the sport changing?
I’m not going to go into a detailed history of women’s MMA, because there really isn’t much to tell. Any long time fan of MMA surely knows the names of Gina Carano and Kris “Cyborg” Santos and their trailblazing matches in Strikeforce (not to mention the climax in which they fought… which Santos won), but since the days when each of these women stepped out of the spotlight, there really hasn’t been much to say about this aspect of the sport. That is, until Ronda Rousey stepped onto the stage.
Rousey to-date has had nine MMA fights (3 amateur, 6 professional) and has finished all of her opponents inside the ring. What’s more impressive, is that she has dispatched most of these opponents inside of a minute. Even more impressive, is that she has finished all of them by armbar, giving her the clever nickname “Armbar”. That said, if you haven’t seen her flying armbar victory at Strikeforce 18 against Sarah D’Alelio – watch it!
UFC President Dana White has generally been less than open to the idea of women’s MMA, and in my opinion, rightfully so. In reality, outside of Rousey there aren’t that many impressive female fighters in the MMA circuit today – making it very hard to build-up this aspect of the sport. This aside, there is also the general lack of interest in women’s sport from the viewing public (which has generally been male). However, White may have seen the writing on the wall and seen opportunity knocking.
So, why now would White be opening his mind to prospect of women’s MMA? Two reasons, both of which are intertwined with one another:
- The sport’s growth, and more specifically the UFC, is losing some steam. A new story or aspect is needed to gain some attraction and build more word-of-mouth for the sport.
- To grow the sport you have to connect with more people, for example women.
Lacklustre ratings of both TUF and recent UFC events have probably left the ZUFFA brass with a small sense of panic. They need to do something to get UFC back on people’s minds. While MMA already hits a hot button with a lot people in the controversial sense, what better way to get some unpaid advertising than by saying you’re going to have two women go at it trying to kill each other in the middle of a ring?
Currently as it stands, the UFC viewing audience is not surprisingly very heavily skewed towards men (75% men/25% women). Could this be another move by the UFC to increase their viewing demographic? Methinks so.
So, we have a dominant fighter (re: Rousey) and a handful of opponents that she could theoretically fight (re: Santos) and an openess from the UFC to host a fight. What’s next? Well, the next step is the event and how it is managed – which the UFC will need to be very careful about. First, I pray to god that the UFC does not make Rousey v. “Unamed Opponent” the main event of whichever card it headlines. Yes, Santos v. Carano headlined the second biggest even in Strikeforce history – but, that was after YEARS of build-up (not to mention, who didn’t want to see a ridiculously hot Carano tear the eyes out of another woman?)… in the Seinfeld-ian sense of “cat fight”, this one was set-up beautifully. Rousey does not have another big name opponent to fight against, unless Santos returns; and even if Santos does return, she doesn’t have the same momentum behind her that she did when she fought Carano.
The UFC needs to put Rousey’s first potential fight as the co-main event of the first card it is on. Feel the waters out first. Best case scenario, make it the main event of a Fuel card. Since lately most UFC pay-per-views have been reliant almost solely on the main card, I would not rely on an aspect of the sport that a lot of people are unsure about to drive eyeballs to the screen!
At any rate, love or hate women’s MMA, it’s coming to the UFC! Get ready for it, who knows you may actually like it… in the Seinfeld-ian “cat fight sense” if nothing else.
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