Women’s MMA: Give It The Respect It Deserves
Gina Carano vs. Cris Santos – the most recognizable women’s MMA bout
As a loaded weekend of mixed martial arts action came to a close, we look back and what do we all remember? Was it the exciting action put forward by the 135-lbs girls on the Strikeforce card? Or was it the return to American soil of the pound-for-pound queen of women’s MMA?
For many of you out there the answer to this will be “No.” Following the conclusion of the Strikeforce event I visited various fight communities expecting to read about the heart displayed by Miesha Tate or the slick submission attempts by Hitomi Akano.
Instead what I found were a series of discussions relating to the attractive features of the likes of Meisha Tate and Carina Damm.
What ever happened to respecting female athletes for their god-given ability to compete? But the MMA community are not alone—in every sport women are objectified and treated as lesser than their male counter parts.
But these women don’t just fight for the respect of the fight community, they fight for a living—this is how they support their families and put food on their tables.
Let’s look back to the most recent UFC pay-per-view, UFC 117 headlined by Anderson Silva defending his UFC middleweight title against Chael Sonnen. Silva left with $200,000 and Hughes left with $300,000 following his submission of the night bonus.
The lowest paid athletes on that show were Todd Brown, Christian Morecraft and Rodney Wallace who each left with a comfortable $6,000 for their losing efforts.
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