Few girls are entertaining - Sean O'Malley proposes a separate league for female UFC fighters (WUFC)

[Deleted member 592822]

Comparing WMMA to the WNBA doesn't really jive with me. Combat sports are a better representation and women competing on them is not unusual (Idk if I would say it would be typical either, the UFC promotes more women than other combat orgs). The WNBA is not a successful endeavor (which was part of his point) but I think WMMA within the UFC on mixed cards has been successful, even by just bringing new eyes to the sport. It has allowed the UFC to make more money by putting on more events and attracting more sponsors, contracts, etc. From a purely business aspect, it would be stupid to give it up. From a fan aspect, it is more of a mixed bag.

I think WMMA in the UFC might be better if they followed the UFC fight model circa 1999-2004, when only a handful of men were signed full time and others were brought in for the occasional fight but were also free to fight in some of the more minor orgs. Sadly, I do not think they would ever do that again. Heaven forgive a fighter using the UFC for cred when they are young and then sign for big money somewhere else.

No. No one watches women's boxing for example

 

[krelianx]

Weili, Shev, Grasso, Santos, Andrade, Suarez, Rose, Pinheiro, are all excellent fighters. Since there's only two divisions practically Im fine with it being around.

 

[jitzmonkey]

So... women fighting gets more women interested in the sport... which makes it easier for the (let's be real) wives/girlfriends to get on board with us watching.

Would be curious to find out how many execs of multi-billion dollar corporations are taking advice from 28 y/o high school drop outs who get punched/kicked in the head for a living.
___

Fun fact. OMalley has not entertained to the level of Cyborg Ronda Numez or Val.who btw don’t dye their hair rainbow for attention

His style is a bit more dynamic.
Even so, I'm not sure that I'd argue against your point.

 

[Mind Mine]

So... women fighting gets more women interested in the sport... which makes it easier for the (let's be real) wives/girlfriends to get on board with us watching.

Would be curious to find out how many execs of multi-billion dollar corporations are taking advice from 28 y/o high school drop outs who get punched/kicked in the head for a living.
Maybe the



His style is a bit more dynamic.
Even so, I'm not sure that I'd argue against your point.

There are guys on a regional level dynamic as hell. They simply did not entertain mass audiences remotely to the point the elite women have. That’s not opinion. Also fact he benefits from the UFC hype machine probably moreso than any woman. They are trying to sell his image to the youth. The nerve of that guy when if you put him as co main of any elite level woman fight he probably wouldn’t be the main event

 

[laleggenda27]

1. I generally agree with him (which is rare), except he's being too pc about it. The level of athleticism is obviously not comparable--I think this is really what he's talking about. But the overall level of skill is also pretty awful. Even most of the "exciting" wmma fights are just brawls between tough women who have very low-level skills.

2. There are obviously exceptions to the rule. There are maybe 10 women in the UFC I personally enjoy watching. But I'm not sure that's enough to justify the inclusion of the rest of the wmma roster. And surely even the most diehard wmma fans would admit that it's strange that viewers are forced to watch wmma as part of the same event. You don't see this in other sports, and the truth is that the vast majority of viewers don't actually care about wmma.

3. WMMA is here to stay in the UFC, primarily for two reasons. First, doing away with wmma as a whole would be terrible optics for the UFC at this point. Second, and more importantly, wmma gives the UFC more cheap labor to fill watered-down cards with.

 

[FreddieRoachsVoice]

There was more of an argument for this a few years ago but genuine lol for people saying WMMA fights are watering down cards in modern day when even the main events aren't worth watching on 90% of fight nights. You can't water down water; depth is an issue in nearly every men's division now too besides BW

 

[MartiniSIDe]

Not gonna lie

I almost never watch the cards live anymore. I record them and I skip 95% of woman's fight. I basically only watch Weilli, Nunes and Shevchenko depending on the matchup.

Used to love Joanna though but yeah...most woman's fight fuckin suck. And almost the same for man's flyweight.

Basically if you remove the ko treat, I feel like I'm watching a sparring match. And I don't enjoy it.

 

[StewDogg11]

I mean he’s right and the WNBA comparison is a great one.

 

[Icanseeu]

Don't care for O'malley as a fighter but I agree with this. I don't enjoy watching chick fight the quality overall is just poor.

 

[Dr. Rose]

No. No one watches women's boxing for example

I do not think I said that or implied that. People rarely watch women sports in the US unless it is tennis, the Olympics, if the women do really well in the World Cup, etc. Or you have a generational athlete that transcends the sports world into larger popular culture like a Rhonda Rousey or a Babe Didrikson.
The comparison is how they handle fight cards.

 

[Adamant__]

I rather watch Zhang than any Belal fight.

Facts.

 

[LiQuiD42]

Uh... Invicta?

Came to post this exactly, left completely satisfied.

 

[bjjwar]

The thing is thanks to women they can fill cards up and can do more events=make more money. Also their salaries is usually lower than the guys, so it's basically a win-win for the UFC to keep them on every card. Just the fans are the stupid ones paying for absolute sh** and having to go through those abominations...

 

[Mr Fahrenheit]

Does he not know about Invicta? What am I missing <45> ?

You may be missing that he’s talking about carving out WMMA from the UFC into an Invicta-like spin-off. He’s not asking how would a random WMMA organization fare, he’s asking what would happen if the UFC promoted the best WMMA fighters in the world in separate events.

We know what he’s saying though — it wouldn’t draw.

 

[You Will Vote For Dreyga]

You may be missing that he’s talking about carving out WMMA from the UFC into an Invicta-like spin-off. He’s not asking how would a random WMMA organization fare, he’s asking what would happen if the UFC promoted the best WMMA fighters in the world in separate events.

We know what he’s saying though — it wouldn’t draw.

But the logic is dumb.

What would happen if the UFC carved out a Midwestern UFC into a spin off organization. And promoted the best midwestern fighters.

Your could say the same about any demographic and the answer would likely be the same

The UFC is the only MMA organization on the planet that draw significant profits.

 

[m249viking]

1. I generally agree with him (which is rare), except he's being too pc about it. The level of athleticism is obviously not comparable--I think this is really what he's talking about. But the overall level of skill is also pretty awful. Even most of the "exciting" wmma fights are just brawls between tough women who have very low-level skills.

2. There are obviously exceptions to the rule. There are maybe 10 women in the UFC I personally enjoy watching. But I'm not sure that's enough to justify the inclusion of the rest of the wmma roster. And surely even the most diehard wmma fans w Second, and more importantly, wmma gives the UFC more cheap labor to fill watered-down cards with.

1. I generally agree with him (which is rare), except he's being too pc about it. The level of athleticism is obviously not comparable--I think this is really what he's talking about. But the overall level of skill is also pretty awful. Even most of the "exciting" wmma fights are just brawls between tough women who have very low-level skills.

2. There are obviously exceptions to the rule. There are maybe 10 women in the UFC I personally enjoy watching. But I'm not sure that's enough to justify the inclusion of the rest of the wmma roster. And surely even the most diehard wmma fans would admit that it's strange that viewers are forced to watch wmma as part of the same event. You don't see this in other sports, and the truth is that the vast majority of viewers don't actually care about wmma.

3. WMMA is here to stay in the UFC, primarily for two reasons. First, doing away with wmma as a whole would be terrible optics for the UFC at this point. Second, and more importantly, wmma gives the UFC more cheap labor to fill watered-down cards with.

male fighters are a dime a dozen so the UFC doesn't need to worry about that,

 

[Stump]

Fun fact. OMalley has not entertained to the level of Cyborg Ronda Numez or Val.who btw don’t dye their hair rainbow for attention

MMM... I'm not sure that's true, and even if it was, thats comparing the few most amazing fights WMMA has ever to one very recent solid prospect who happens to also be an attention whore.

I'd still rather watch Omalleys next fight than any WMMA fighter's next fight. Let alone the male stars

 

[DapperDave]

Does Sean know that there was a WMMA org called Invicta?

You make his point perfectly.
No one watches Invicta.

I'm pretty sure the point he is making is this:
WMMA would have no audience if not for UFC. People watch WMMA because it is part of UFC cards.

At the base level, I disagree with Sean.
I respect committed dedicated female mixed martial artists. I see no harm in providing them a top venue for competition.
The downside is occasional gifs like Rowdy shadow-boxing, etc.
The upside is occasional phenomena like Rose beating two opponents she could never beat. Twice. Each. Still an unbelievable accomplishment.

Reality: No one watches Invicta. Female martial artists should have access and exposure at top venues. There's no harm in it. And UFC does a pretty good job: at least half the fights are real fights between opponents who possess real skills.

 

[Sad Dad]

The top 10 females across all divisions are fine and exciting to watch. It gets shallow quickly. I’m not ani-WMMA but I’m also not above calling most of these fights terrible.

Still, Weilli vs Joanna is one of the best fights of all time.

yep exactly how i feel. there are some absolutely amazing women fighters who i love to watch fight and some really intriguing matchups but there's not a lot of depth and there are a lot of boring fights. one of the main issues is that any two guys matching up in the ufc someone could get KOd at any time, even in mismatches. that possibility keeps it exciting

 

[mirko>anyone]

yep exactly how i feel. there are some absolutely amazing women fighters who i love to watch fight and some really intriguing matchups but there's not a lot of depth and there are a lot of boring fights. one of the main issues is that any two guys matching up in the ufc someone could get KOd at any time, even in mismatches. that possibility keeps it exciting

Agreed. It’s always been such a hot topic with polarizing responses here. I think there’s a lot of truth on both sides of the fence.