Written by Soren Lindseth
As women’s mixed martial arts struggle to garner the attention they deserve, we explore why one dominant female champion should lure a former men’s double champ out of retirement for the inaugural intergender championship.
Warning: this is 100% satirical and in no way reflects our views
With the event of the women’s featherweight division shutting down, women’s MMA has an apparent need for revival. There is really only one competitive women’s division, which is strawweight. The deepest female talent seems to be concentrated at 115 pounds from champion Weili Zhang to former champions Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Rose Namajunas.
That is not to say that the other female divisions do not have talent. Amanda Nunes has been dominating the bantamweight division for years at this point and just recently shut down the women’s featherweight division with her win over Megan Anderson, as the UFC has not been able to find viable challengers for her at featherweight.
The same domination can be seen at flyweight, where Valentina Shevchenko has been easily defending her belt since she beat Joanna Jedrzejczyk for the vacant title back in December of 2018.
They have been the epitome of dominance. Look no further than the odds in Shevchenko’s last five fights, which she won fairly easily. She was a -330 favorite against Joanna, but other than that, she has not stooped below -1200 odds. Against Jennifer Maia in her last defense, Shevchenko sat as a whopping -2000 favorite.
Believe it or not, a champion as dominant as Shevchenko is actually more of a curse than a blessing. Fans want to believe that the fight will be close or that they do not truly know the outcome will be. It is hard to sell tickets or get fans to watch a fight when everyone and their mother knows that “The Bullet” will easily win.
We have seen this before in other divisions where a fighter is so good that they cannot draw viewers. Jon Jones one of the greatest combat sports athletes of all time, has struggled to draw since the Cormier rematch. Until recently, after a couple of close decisions with the likes of Thiago Santos and Dominick Reyes, Jones had the same problem that female fighters such as Shevchenko have, hence the move to heavyweight to challenge himself to further solidify his argument for GOAT.
There is an easy solution for fixing women’s MMA, and like every problem that a woman brings about eventually it is solved by a man. Henry Cejudo is credited for this idea when he called out Shevchenko for the intergender championship. The patriarchal structure of the UFC as well as the misogynistic president Dana White did not even give the idea a thought and chalked it up to Triple C and his gimmick.
Others stated the tired platitudes of men being stronger than women and uttered other sexist remarks. People need to wake up, it is the 21st century and women are equal to men now. If you do not think that a man should get into a cage and try to beat up a woman, you are the problem. You are certainly not some protector of women as you claim, you are just trying to protect your fragile male ego from the fact that Shevchenko would actually be favored to win that fight and furthermore could actually win.
So now that you have gotten over your preconceived notions of male superiority, let us get serious and break down the fight between the two (cue Bruce Buffer voice).
Shevchenko stands 5’5” and is 34 years old. She is a Muay Thai fighter with a professional record of 20 wins and 3 losses. In case you have not been paying attention, she is the reigning defending UFC women’s flyweight champion. Cejudo stands 5’4” and is the same age, accumulating a record of 16 wins and 2 losses. He is the former UFC men’s flyweight and bantamweight champion, as well as Olympic gold medalist.
They are relatively similar in stature, so how would their styles see the fight play out? Shevchenko generally chooses a striking heavy approach with her Muay Thai background, while Cejudo integrates his strong wrestling, since he did win an Olympic gold medal back in 2008 if you did not know, but mixes in his improved striking since transitioning over into MMA in 2013. However, Shevchenko’s wins are very balanced with six coming by knockout, seven by submission, and seven by decision. Cejudo’s wins are split evenly between knockouts (generally due to ground and pound) and decisions.
All that being said, the fight would be very close. Cejudo might even be favored. Cejudo would try to employ his grappling while trying to avoid the terrifying kicks of Shevchenko. The “Bullet” would try to keep Cejudo at range at simply outstrike him. Shevchenko would maybe even try to take down Cejudo with her patented trips. All and all the fight would be close and probably end up in the hands of the judges.
So, what would this do for the division, the UFC, and the sport at large? It would have the potential to revive the seemingly lifeless divisions in the sport. It would give new life and new challenges to dominant champions, such as Shevchenko and Nunes. But more importantly, it would show the world that women are equal to men and they can compete with them. Long gone are the days of “protecting women” by not letting them fight men.
The future is bright for women in MMA, especially in the event that intergender fights become commonplace. Maybe one day there will be no delineation between men’s and women’s divisions and the best fighter regardless of gender will reign in each weight class.
A better time, where equality for women in MMA is normal and all of it will be thanks to the idea of a man.
Comments