Lost in all the talk about whether or not Ronda Rousey could beat a man in a UFC fight is the fact that she’s doing something historic that needs no further justification.
Yet the discussion of Rousey being able to beat a UFC bantamweight fighter has seemingly become the hot topic thanks to comments made by Joe Rogan, who was only trying to talk about her greatness—though in a poorly worded way.
Rogan, the UFC’s color commentator, said in an interview on The Dan Le Batard Show (h/t Sporting News) that Rousey could beat guys in her weight class.
“There’s a lot of guys her size she could beat,” Rogan said. “I mean, a lot. If you took the roster of the UFC’s bantamweights, 135 pounds, and you paired them up against Ronda Rousey, she might be able to beat 50 percent of them. That’s not a joke.”
It’s not a joke, as Rousey has proved herself to be a world-class athlete in her 11 career mixed martial arts fights and by winning a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics. But the fact that it’s even being brought up is a sign of disrespect to her and female mixed martial artists everywhere.
Rousey hasn’t helped the situation by saying on SportsCenter (via For The Win’s Nick Schwartz) that she believes she “could beat 100 percent of them.” That’s not something you hold against her, though, because any athlete should have the confidence to say he or she can win in any situation, and in part, that seemed to be her point.
Yet the UFC women’s bantamweight champion finally defused the situation by telling Marlow Stern of The Daily Beast that there are much more serious issues at play in everyday life that could make a sanctioned fight between a man and a woman irresponsible:
I don’t think it’s a great idea to have a man hitting a woman on television. I’ll never say that I’ll lose, but you could have a girl getting totally beat up on TV by a guy—which is a bad image to put across. With all the football [domestic violence] stuff that’s been happening, not a good idea. It’s fun to theorize about and talk about, but it’s something that’s much better in theory than fact.
There’s already a stigma that some people have attached to sports like mixed martial arts and boxing because they are violent by nature. Setting up a man vs. woman fight could potentially make things worse, as Rousey implied—not to mention what this conversation says about how little respect is shown to women who compete in athletics.
Think about it: When Anderson Silva went seven years without a loss, did anyone think he needed to prove anything? Jon Jones is making the light heavyweight division look like a breeze, yet no one thinks he has anything left to prove.
Billie Jean King’s famous 1973 victory over Bobby Riggs in the Battle of the Sexes was a stepping stone in the battle for gender equality, though it’s unfortunately a battle that still persists 42 years later.
By suggesting—even in a joking manner—that Rousey could beat men, it shows on a conscious or subconscious level that there’s something less impressive about beating female fighters in dominating fashion.
It’s not true in any way, shape or form.
Nothing that Rousey has done in her MMA career needs justification. Analysts don’t need to suggest she could beat a man to highlight her greatness. Her greatness is evident in everything she’s done in the cage.
Her career is ascending because she’s great at what she does—not because of whom she could theoretically beat.
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