I think it goes without being said that WMMA has a lot of drawing potential and is a great benefit to have on the main stage of the sport in the UFC. I’ve heard all the arguments on why it’s too soon or why women shouldn’t be given roles in the sport as anything more than a gimmick, randomly sprinkled between predominantly male oriented events among the fringe promotions in the world.
Not only have women arrived as legitimate mixed martial artists, but they have a huge drawing potential. They put asses in seats, and the UFC needs that these days more than ever. What with all the other promotions springing up to make deals with CBS (World Series of Fighting) or Viacom (Bellator Fighting Championships) and the inclusion of more UFC pay-per-views, it’s just necessary at this point.
Ronda Rousey alone can successfully headline a big PPV, so all the people who say women aren’t technical enough in their craft, or there just aren’t enough of them, it’s time to move past these lame plot points. Hell the boxing guys have had to accept more than a few hard truths these days, so maybe we should learn from their mistakes once again, and accept the thing people struggle with most, and that’s change.
With Rousey successfully defending her UFC belt against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157, she will wait for the winner of Miesha Tate and Cat Zigano at the TUF 17 Finale on April 13th, to co-star as fellow TUF coaches in the next season of the MMA based reality series.
With TUF dieing rapidly in the ratings these days, it’s not a far stretch for Dana to go from giving middleweight fighter Chael Sonnen an immediate title shot against light heavyweight champ Jon Jones to spice up the TUF show. Yet it came as more of a surprise than last season’s announcement which was written all over Joe Rogan’s face (check it out in the video below) when he announced the first inclusion of women on the next TUF show.
Now Rousey and the winner of Tate/Zigano will be coaching 135lb women and men for TUF 18. What’s crazy isn’t that women will be coaches, but that both women and men will be living in the house this time. Some people, including Joe Rogan, feel like this is going to get insane.
Just the possibilities of what can happen with both sexes in the TUF house are staggering. Of course people are expecting some of these fighters to start having sex with each other. That’s a given I guess.
What’s disturbing is that they could even fight. That could be downright entertaining and yet completely wrong at the same time if two individuals of the opposite sex decide to throw down.
Personally I’m more concerned with the format of the show getting in the way of pioneering efforts for in women MMA. The reason I believe the ultimate fighter sucks these days is because most of the fighters seem handpicked for their level drama they can bring to the table, as opposed for their ability to fight.
Sure I would love to see a bunch of hotties run around on TV, but not if they are just going to wash right out of the UFC because they suck at fighting. It’s going to be important that Dana White and co. pick women based on their fighting ability, not on how cute they look half naked and drunk in front of cameras.
Now with all the fighting and sex going down on screen, will it be enough to revitalize the TUF show? Let’s hope so, but accept the fact that it probably won’t save it’s ratings in the future.
Even if this works, how the hell is Dana gonna top women on the show for next season? He’s probably not going to be able to. Unless Anderson Silva vs. GSP or Anderson Silva vs. Jon Jones graces the coaching spots for TUF, I don’t see women being able to revitalize TUF for the extended future.
Hell it’s all been done on reality television over the last decade or so anyways. Therefore my expectations for women on TUF are pretty low at this point. Yet even though I’m not plussed about it, I still can’t wait to see Rousey’s next fight.