Where were you when you heard the news? The news that the UFC’s parent company, Zuffa, bought Strikeforce. I was playing with my children and decided to hop on Facebook because I hadn’t been on for three or four hours. There it was. On every other post streaming down my news feed.
I got a sick feeling in my stomach to be honest with you. My first thought went straight to the female fighters. Will they still have a place in Strikeforce after the dust settles? In my humble opinion, the males will see a significant change in the landscape of their sport, but their journey doesn’t have as many roadblocks standing in their way as the females who fight in this great sport (like any other thing in life).
According to Zuffa, Strikeforce will continue to promote women’s fights as long as the contracts for fighters are there. White said he still doesn’t believe there is enough depth of talent to have women’s divisions.
HOLD UP wait a minute! Dana White obviously doesn’t watch the females fight. In most cases, if there is a female fight on a card, It earns fight of the night honors.There is plenty of depth in Women’s MMA. Where some weight classes may lack the numbers they make up for it in heart.
Ursula Marshall, an aspiring female fighter said this about Dana White’s disdain for female fighters,
(Dana White) “Should spend less time saying there isn’t enough females to create a division and more time finding the talent that IS out there, they just have no way to get their foot in the door because people like him continually deny that women should be accepted into the MMA world.”
What she said! It’s like Ursula took what I was thinking and ripped it right out of my brain! I couldn’t have said it better myself…so I didn’t.
So, what happens after these contracts end? Will there be renewals? Or will Zuffa just consciously let the women’s division dissolve into oblivion. So many questions. There are two ways to look at it though, We can embrace it or fight against it. Many people have chimed in on the subject and here is a taste of what they are saying.
Sam Wilson, an avid Female Fighter fan and advocate, looks at it from the perspective of the purchase being a win for female fighters. She said,
“I think it will not be noticed as a whole….this is a GOOD thing…may NOT seem like it because Dana White is attached to it in a round about way…Zuffa IS SUCCESSFUL! and trust they KNOW that the men as well as the females WATCH the ladies battle… Women's MMA would NOT even exist if Dana and Zuffa had not brought MMA to EVERYONE'S living rooms. When UFC gets their own cable channel, the WOMEN WILL be mainstream,. They WILL not be removed from this promotion. I hate to say this, BUT I do support this.”
Current Strikeforce Middleweight Women’s Champ, Cris "Cyborg" Santos tweeted,
“I am very calm and happy with everything that is happening. God knows all things and what’s mine for me.”
Current Strikeforce Welterweight Champ, Marloes Coenen Simply told me,
“Dana finally like us women fighting? Hope so! We will see..I have faith!”
Love the positive attitudes towards the purchase. A part of me wants to jump on that train but, deep down in side of me I can’t shake that feeling that Dana White and the Fertitta Brothers have no intention of keeping the women around.
Ariel Penn, a fan of Female MMA and insider chimed in with this perspective on the buyout,
“Unfortunately, I think this will be terrible for female MMA. Promoting female MMA runs contrary to their goal of getting the sport sanctioned. Zuffa doesn’t want a bunch of politicians turning all white knight on them if they see a bloody female battle on a Zuffa promotion.”
Sandy Chavez an MMA fan gave this outlook on the situation,
“Dana is going to wait until their contracts are up then give them the boot. He has been firm on his feelings about women fighters in the UFC. It’s NEVER going to happen and it’s sad but it’s reality.”
“If he doesn’t allow women to fight, then there needs to be some sort of boycott! The sponsors of UFC could be boycotted as well! Dana says business as usual…which means for now female refs and ringgirls only! Strikeforce had a great thing going, let’s hope Dana/Zuffa keep it that way! MMA is for all but UFC is not for all of MMA!”
As you can tell all the “what ifs” have brought out some great opinions on the subject. I for one, want to stay positive. It seems the females have much more pressure on them to prove they belong alongside the men. Which should be easy for them! Those that don’t like to watch women fight for the most part may come around.
MMA is an ever evolving sport and if you don’t evolve you get left behind. No other gender in any sport is evolving at the rate that female mixed martial artists are, and it’s going to be great to watch them prove all the critics wrong in the coming years. If Zuffa doesn’t know that they have a priceless gem in Women’s MMA, they may just bring on their own downfall.
There IS a large group of MMA fans that love to watch the women fight just as much and in a lot of cases more than the men. If Zuffa cares about the people who pay their hard earned money to see their events they will listen to them. If not well, the almighty dollar wins again. That would be sad.
Time holds all the answers to all our questions, and it’s time to sit back and watch the soap opera that is MMA.
As always join other MMA fans on our facebook MMA page, Real Women and Men watch MMA.
Source:
No comments:
Post a Comment