Dana White dropped something of a bombshell on Fox Sports’ podcast The Fighter and the Kid: The UFC is going to open a 115-pound women’s division.
The move is both surprising and welcome.
White minced no words while talking about what prompted the move. “On The Ultimate Fighter right now that’s airing, the women are out-rating the men. When the women fight, ratings are up 44-percent,” he said.
The ongoing season of The Ultimate Fighter Season 18, which features the first-ever co-ed cast, has seen women consistently out-draw the men in terms of ratings. The season’s second episode, for example, featured Shayna Baszler vs. Julianna Pena and garnered over 870,000 viewers, making it the second-most watched UFC programming on Fox Sports 1 to date, next to only UFC Fight Night: Sonnen vs. Rua.
From a talent and matchmaking perspective, this is a very wise move.
Women’s fights have been consistently popular, but having just one weight class forced many women to either fight above their native weight class in the UFC, or face MMA‘s rigors for pennies on the dollar in smaller promotions. This was woefully obvious in some recently aired matches such as Jessica Rakoczy vs. Roxanne Modafferi and Rosi Sexton vs. Amanda Nunes. Both fights saw the smaller woman (Modafferi and Sexton) get physically overpowered en route to lopsided losses.
A 115-pound division opens up more options for women looking to make it big in MMA but maintains the integrity of the hyper-competitive 135-pound division. While some previously called for a 125-pound division, such a move likely would have split apart the UFC’s current pool of women, as fighters such as Alexis Davis and Jessica Eye have previously had success as flyweights.
Additionally, the combination of a strawweight and bantamweight division will lead to something of a monopoly on women’s talent for the UFC. A staggering majority of high-level female fighters compete between 105 pounds and 135 pounds.
As previously demonstrated, fighters are willing to take on a potential size disadvantage for the opportunity to fight in the UFC.
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