White: UFC is ‘an even playing field’ for male and female athletes

UFC president Dana White talks about equality in sports and how the company treats its female athletes. UFC president Dana White was once opposed to the idea of female fighters competing in the Octagon. All of that changed, he said, when h…

UFC president Dana White talks about equality in sports and how the company treats its female athletes.

UFC president Dana White was once opposed to the idea of female fighters competing in the Octagon. All of that changed, he said, when he came across Ronda Rousey in the early 2010’s.

Women’s MMA has since exploded, and many cards are now headlined by female fighters. In a recent Hashtag Sports session, White was proud of how the UFC became a platform of equality for male and female athletes.

“If you think about in all other sports what they talk about is ‘if women play golf, they hit from shorter tees’, there’s always some excuse about women playing a sport,” White said (via MMA Fighting). “It’s absolutely an even playing field in the UFC. They fight the same style, they fight everything and even the pay. At the time Ronda Rousey was here, she was the highest paid fighter in the UFC.

“These women are incredible. What’s crazy too, when you think about the empowerment of women right now — for most men this is hard to wrap their head around — a woman will kick your ass these days. It’s not like it was 30 years ago. When I grew up, they played with dolls and we played sports. Not anymore.”

White recognizes how women’s MMA took off to become the grand spectacle that it is now.

“One of the things you have to remember—I completely own up to saying women would never fight in the octagon—but like I told you guys earlier, you’ve got to remember at this time, I was trying to get people to accept the men fighting in the Octagon,” White explained. “It wasn’t allowed on pay-per-view. It wasn’t allowed on TV.

“There’s always going to be this, it’s changing rapidly, but there’s always going to be this chauvinist side to men that men don’t want to see women getting pinned up against the cage and hit with elbows and getting cut, things like that,” he continued.

“So I thought, it’s very popular now. The difference is, the reason that the women’s MMA has taken off and it’s so big is because these women are legit. Really good, very technical, and it’s amazing and I never saw it coming.”

UFC 239 will, in fact, be co-headlined by a women’s title fight between bantamweight champion Amanda Nunes and Holly Holm. It takes place this Saturday, July 6th in Las Vegas to cap off International Fight Week.