With Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce, the future of Women’s MMA seems to have no more than a bleak opportunity to survive in the world’s largest Mixed Martial Art’s stage; however, there does seem to be an opportunity to extend the female divisions to a respectable level.
With notable fighters such as Megumi Fujii and Jessica Aguilar, Bellator holds the market share of the popular 115lbsweight class. With women’s MMA on a slow but respectable rise in America, riding the coat-tales of general MMA appeal, filling out the roster with more and more female fighters could draw some attention to a fledgling market.
If Zuffa does release their female fighters, then there is no reason for Bellator not to sign up Bantamweight and Featherweight female fighters, filling out their rosters with new talent in each division by offering quality contracts to female boxers, kickboxers, jiu jitsu practitioners and judokas.
Women’s MMA is at the stage that male MMA stood at in the early portion of the decade, where most fighters tend to possess a single strong style and little else. That being the case, there is plenty of opportunity to have good-old-fashion tournaments that pit interesting style matchups or wild battles like the one seen in Cyborg vs. Carano.
The opportunity to watch the sport grow is not the only draw. Mixed Martial Arts retains its entertinament value as a female competitorare as effective against one another as their male counterparts. This is unlike the WNBA or women’s American Football where the women tend to not “pack a punch” like the opposite gender does. Furthermore, women are generally more flexible than men, meaning the Judokas and jiu-jitsu practitioners can provide for a large opportunity to wow audiences with rare submission positions. Sure its a rather sexist point but its the same as noting that men tend to have better upper-body strength than women. Its a fact and there’s no reason not to note it.
Women’s MMA still has a long way to go, but instead of simply casting it aside, perhaps the predominantly male viewers should embrace the opportunity to relive the evolution of Mixed Martial Arts and enjoy seeing legends be born in their favorite sport.
With Zuffa’s purchase of Strikeforce, the future of Women’s MMA seems to have no more than a bleak opportunity to survive in the world’s largest Mixed Martial Art’s stage; however, there does seem to be an opportunity to extend the female divisions to a respectable level.