Once upon a time, there was a woman named Ronda Rousey. Ronda was a star in MMA but she wasn’t a star in the UFC. This is because the UFC didn’t have women fighting on its cards. Then, Ronda opened the door to chicks in a cage being more than just a cheesy tag line for a movie. Because she was so polarizing, the company was forced to let women fight. And so they did. And it was good.
No. It wasn’t just good, it was great. Rousey became the biggest star in the sport, and one of the biggest stars in all of female athletics. She made the company millions and millions of dollars. And that door didn’t close behind her either. Immediately, the UFC created a second women’s division, and the company set an attendance record – with a show headlined by four women. You probably remember it for this:
Things kept moving forward. Conor McGregor lost an amazing fight to Nate Diaz and yet Miesha Tate winning the female bantamweight championship was still a big story for a time. The King of MMA PPV loses but the women had proven themselves to such a degree that they too were noteworthy. When Tate lost her belt, it was news. When Nunes kept defending it, it was news. And now Cyborg is their hottest ticket.
Then there is pay. Women are on the same pay scale as men. I cannot ever recall a woman being paid less than a man in the UFC, accounting for number of fights etc… There is true economic parity between the sexes. That doesn’t happen in tennis or golf or basketball. Hell, for some time, Ronda was the highest paid fighter in the UFC. Jennifer Lawrence can win a bunch of Oscars, anchor several billion-dollar franchises, and yet her male co-stars get paid more. For a sport often viewed as nothing more than uneducated idiots, stupid thugs, and men one step above cavemen, the UFC is remarkably ahead of the curve in gender equality.
There aren’t signs this is going to change anytime soon too. When Ronda finally returned from her first loss, her fight of course headlined.. There wasn’t even be a question; not a single second thought. She’s the big star, she gets the most money, she headlined. The UFC sees someone they can market and they do it without hesitation.
But it was that creation of a 115 lb division that showed the UFC was approaching things for real. They weren’t artificially keeping a division around just so they could have Rousey fight. The company made an choice to proactively (go with it as a word) plan for a future that featured women. And then, they added 125 and 145 within the span of a few months. If there was such a thing as a 155 lb women’s division, they’d have that too!
Yes, there are issues when it comes to sponsorship money, as it is all based on tenure, but that will sort itself out rather quickly. Other than that, the bloodiest, nastiest, most barbaric (read the NYT for more!) sport around is also the more progressive. All you have to do is want to be a fucking fighter and then you’ll get paid