The UFC: still a male dominated world

 Mixed Martial Arts, known to most people as Ultimate Fighting is one of the most rapidly evolving and increasingly popular sports in the world. So why are women still not allowed in the UFC?

First of all, there's always been a link between the UFC and professional wrestling. The UFC has done everything in it's power to debunk the myth that it's just another version of wrestling. The first argument is always that it's real fighting, versus staged fighting. Does that mean that the certain things aren't fixed? Certainly not. They still have to make a spectacle out of it. But the violence is all real. They make it entertaining to the audience by having the fighter's talk down about each other before the fight. Or, simply discuss their game plane and their opinion. The interview creates the personality of the fighter. Whether or not he's cocky, whether he's gracious and humble, or, that maybe he's just confident enough to predict the outcome. This plays a role in how the audience's view of the fighter and who will route for him. Image is everything, but the outcome in the ring which is based upon skill will be the real test. It's one man against the other, trying to prove who's a better fighter.

 The UFC had to be very careful when one of the most famous professional wrestlers in the world decided to step into the mix: Brock Lesnar. Die hard UFC fans were not happy because of the image that it might bring.

In professional wrestling on the other hand, it's not just men. They put women into the mix. Is it bad to show that women can put up a fight against men? No. Martial arts debunked that myth anyway. But in professional wrestling, they show men not just fighting against women, but degrading them in such a way that it proves male superiority and heterosexism.

Other organizations such as WEC, Elite XC and Strikeforce have allowed women to compete in the ring. Of course, they only compete against other women. This makes sense, considering men and women's sports have always been separated. If men and women fought against each other in the ring, there would be an uproar among fans and among people in general.

Elite XC even had it's poster girl, Gina Carano who appeared in the recent movie HAYWIRE. There's no doubt that Carano is a great fighter with a record of 7-1. But why did Gina get more media attention then the woman who finally beat her, Cristiane Santos? Probably because if you Google Gina Carano's name, most of the images you get look like the one on the right:

Men on the other hand, mostly appear on the covers of muscle magazines. Hmm...
Not that a good portion of the men in the UFC aren't attractive. I could name plenty. But they aren't turned into sex symbols. Instead, they are made into something for other men to model themselves after. Ultimately, it comes down to the fan base. UFC is mostly watched by men. Most men don't like to see women get beat up. Not unless its by another women, but even then if its too real, too bloody, which the UFC is, for most men and its not as entertaining to watch. When the idea of bringing women into the UFC came up, president Dana White was adamantly opposed. "People don't like to see girls getting beat up," were pretty much his words. Seems like he doesn't have a problem with women in the UFC, that is, if it looks like this: