Is MMA the most diverse and inclusive sport?

[mjfan23]

Combat sports overall are. Not a particular mma organization

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Unless you're a trans athlete

ie: Fallon Fox

For good reason unless you want to see women get their skulls bashed in by a biological male.

Fallon Fox lost to a woman tho, who's not even seen as that good. Valentina and Amanda would smash the chick who beat Fox. Makes you wonder.

 

[rac2]

Hi Dana. I think Soccer is more diverse.

hahahah nailed it

 

[HockeyBjj]

Yeah man it’s pretty cool because you can learn so many various “base” skill sets when your young that transition into mma. And it’s not team orientated so you don’t need to have the ability to fit in or mesh with others. You’re not trying to fit into a greater mold or strategy specific to a region/country.

Not a high cost to get into the sport either (at the entry level) so it’s not relegated to upper middle class or more like many other individual sports are (golf and tennis are definitely club inclusive sports for the most part)

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Combat sports overall are. Not a particular mma organization

Not towards women tho.

 

[Hellowhosthat]

There's clearly something about it that attracts gay women, although I couldn't tell you what.

Tecia Torres
Raquel Pennington
Germaine de Randamie
Amanda and Nina Nunes

Just to name a few. Those are just the ones that are open about it.

Yeah there's also Carmouche. Bueno Silva and De Paula are a couple I believe, I think Claudia Gadelha is bisexual, Jessica Andrade etc etc

 

[HockeyBjj]

Why do you think thats not as much of a thing in MMA? I mean people here like to complain about the inferior skill level of WMMA, but the highest level they're definitely elite. Namajunas vs Zhang was treated as the real main event of UFC 261.

That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer. Is it the way two matchup head to head that covers the lower skill better?

basketball you have missed shots and stuff, that are true for both men and women. Hockey you can see the speed isn’t there going up snd down the ice. Passes not as crisp.

Not a baseline when it’s just hit another person? More primal?

 

[HockeyBjj]

Combat sports overall are. Not a particular mma organization

Yeah. I was trying to say the sport in general is, but then even the atheist organization of that sport keeps that diversity and even presents men and women together to the fans.

 

[Sweater of AV]

Soccer is very worldwide, but the various leagues stick to their area aside from world cup every 4 years. They're not going against each other with as much normalcy as the UFC.

Soccer teams aren't necessarily comprised of players from a specific area. They can be very diverse. It's just a different structure than MMA where there actually is little to no cross-promotion between leagues/organizations. The fact that soccer has things like the World Cup makes it more global/inclusive in some sense.

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

That’s a good question. I don’t know the answer. Is it the way two matchup head to head that covers the lower skill better?

basketball you have missed shots and stuff, that are true for both men and women. Not a baseline when it’s just hit another person? More primal?

I don't believe girls like Rose and Valentina are at a lower skill level tho. Look at what Rose just did to Zhang Weili for example. That's straight up phenomenal regardless of gender.

Also @Zebra Cheeks pointed out that most male fighters wouldn't be able to pull off Rose's kick due to flexibility issues. I'm choosing to take his word for it. There's also the case regarding submissions. Women are more flexible and harder to submit.

So this is actually a sport where women have advantages, not just disadvantages.

It's only physical ability that separates them. I mean with baseball, women can't throw the ball as far or hit it as far, so there's obvious handicaps, but there's so equal about just hitting each other lol .

 

[Daelh]

Its largest organization, the UFC, has a wide variety of races and countries represented among its professional athletes. Even the best in this sport are extremely diverse. This isn't something you see in many sports. Football and Basketball are dominated by Americans, baseball has a large latin American population but doesn't have near the European or African representation. Hockey has a lot of candians and Europeans in addition to Americans but glaringly lacking in non white dudes. Soccer is very worldwide, but the various leagues stick to their area aside from world cup every 4 years. They're not going against each other with as much normalcy as the UFC.


(Yan was born in Russia for comparison)

Then not just the athletes, but how the sport is conducted. Every other sport, women are in their own organization. WNBA. etc. Women use all the same facilities as the men, no smaller arena for the smaller crowds for them. No other sports will show a men's competition, women's, back to the men's, and then even have the top showing be a women's event.

As far as rules, other than wearing tops, there's no rule differences between the men and women. Hockey, there's no checking for the women. Golf, the women tee up closer. But it's not like in MMA women are seen as fragile and so can't handle the knees or elbows

As barbaric as the sport is, I think it has to be recognized as the most diverse professional across both gender and racial lines.

No, MMA is not the most diverse sport. That's soccer. For one, you don't need a gym to train at or go pay to train you, you only need a ball to practice and a team to play for. Basically every minor village in the world have a local club you can play for and it doesn't cost money.

There are more nationalities in the Premier League (biggest football league in the world) in around 450 players than there are in the UFC with 800 fighters.

More nations have won the world cup in football than there has been different nationalities as UFC champions.

Some nations that have world class players today include: England, Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, Poland, Germany, Croatia, Slovenia, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Mexico, Norway, Denmark, Egypt, Senegal, Kamerun, Cote d'Ivorie, USA, Canada, Algeria, Morocco etc.

So the answer is: NO. MMA is not the most diverse and inclusive sport. It's not even in the running. It might not even be top 10...

I'd put Tennis, swimming, track and field as far more diverse.

 

[I am your real dad]

I don't care about race.
I do care about everyone around the world getting a fair shot to compete.

But lets be honest, Sterling is the best because he's an American champion.

But that pesky Marty needs to go back to Nebraska where he came from!

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

I don't believe girls like Rose and Valentina are at a lower skill level tho. Look at what Rose just did to Zhang Weili for example. That's straight up phenomenal regardless of gender.

Also @Zebra Cheeks pointed out that most male fighters wouldn't be able to pull off Rose's kick due to flexibility issues. I'm choosing to take his word for it. There's also the case regarding submissions. Women are more flexible and harder to submit.

So this is actually a sport where women have advantages, not just disadvantages.

It's only physical ability that separates them. I mean with baseball, women can't throw the ball as far or hit it as far, so there's obvious handicaps, but there's so equal about just hitting each other lol .

There are also feats of strength men accomplish, and vulnerabilities women have that men do not. For example the girl that got caught in a scorpion crush last year. I understand most male athletes in the ufc have too much muscle to be caught by that...it wouldn’t work.

It’s all what you make of it.

The thing is with women in the ufc, they’ve been combined into the same cards as men. The result is that I believe a good number of the most successful and well known female athletes are mma fighters. It won’t surprise me if I’m a few years it’s easily the most well known and successful women’s sport, maybe besides tennis?

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

There are also feats of strength men accomplish, and vulnerabilities women have that men do not. For example the girl that got caught in a scorpion crush last year. I understand most male athletes in the ufc have too much muscle to be caught by that...it wouldn’t work.

It’s all what you make of it.

The thing is with women in the ufc, they’ve been combined into the same cards as men. The result is that I believe a good number of the most successful and well known female athletes are mma fighters. It won’t surprise me if I’m a few years it’s easily the most well known and successful women’s sport, maybe besides tennis?

Well of course men's strength advantages go without saying.

I wonder how women's pain tolerance plays into it. Women experience pain differently than men, in that they can withstand more pain before passing out. However I believe at the same time, they are more sensitive to pain.

 

[mooseman17]

I would say it’s soccer. MMA is diverse in the sense that you can be born anywhere but will then likely have to train in the States if you plan on making it to the top.

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Well of course men's strength advantages go without saying.

I wonder how women's pain tolerance plays into it. Women experience pain differently than men, in that they can withstand more pain before passing out. However I believe at the same time, they are more sensitive to pain.

Who knows. Some of it can also be other factors like drive, adrenaline etc. I don’t think anyone who is in the top 15 of any weight class in an organization like the ufc has a particularly low pain tolerance. Everywhere you look there’s freak fights like Joanna vs Weili, or Dustin vs Max Holloway, or Kattar vs Max Holloway. Where you know everything in their bodies and mind was screaming STOP STOP STOP, and they kept going. There’s also guys like jacare that break an arm and keep going. No problem. It’s hard to equate something like pain tolerance to a gender because it’s such a foundational skill set that imo is a requirement to even be at this level that everyone is already off the charts and somewhat an “exception” to any kind of rule we’d have in place.

 

[Canadian Kicker]

There are also feats of strength men accomplish, and vulnerabilities women have that men do not. For example the girl that got caught in a scorpion crush last year. I understand most male athletes in the ufc have too much muscle to be caught by that...it wouldn’t work.

It’s all what you make of it.

The thing is with women in the ufc, they’ve been combined into the same cards as men. The result is that I believe a good number of the most successful and well known female athletes are mma fighters. It won’t surprise me if I’m a few years it’s easily the most well known and successful women’s sport, maybe besides tennis?

I was thinking the same this. Female UFC fighters get more exposure because the events consist of multiple fights. If your tuning in to watch the male fights, you still have to sit through the female fights. NHL playoffs have started, if the networks were to play pro female hockey during the intermissions, people would watch.

 

[Kyojiro Kagenuma]

Who knows. Some of it can also be other factors like drive, adrenaline etc. I don’t think anyone who is in the top 15 of any weight class in an organization like the ufc has a particularly low pain tolerance. Everywhere you look there’s freak fights like Joanna vs Weili, or Dustin vs Max Holloway, or Kattar vs Max Holloway. Where you know everything in their bodies and mind was screaming STOP STOP STOP, and they kept going. There’s also guys like jacare that break an arm and keep going. No problem. It’s hard to equate something like pain tolerance to a gender because it’s such a foundational skill set that imo is a requirement to even be at this level that everyone is already off the charts and somewhat an “exception” to any kind of rule we’d have in place.

Yeah but when bodies are specifically designed to handle pain differently I imagine it has to be a factor.

BTW tho, there's plenty of men who can kick higher than Rose did, like above their head and whatnot. What exactly did Rose do that was so hard, just the manner in which she lifted her leg?

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

I was thinking the same this. Female UFC fighters get more exposure because the events consist of multiple fights. If your tuning in to watch the male fights, you still have to sit through the female fights. NHL playoffs have started, if the networks were to play pro female hockey during the intermissions, people would watch.

Exactly. Let’s all be honest. Have you ever really set aside time to watch WNBA? I hat about non World Cup women’s soccer? What about female volleyball or women’s cycling?

The two that stand out are possibly tennis or golf, and as mentioned by some others, the World Cup. But that’s not a sport it’s a single event, similar to the olympics. Like, yeah we know who Lindsey Vohn is but we only watched her once every 4 years.

Consistently, and each week we’re watching female athletes. I think shockingly a sport founded on such a brutal ideology is leading the way in gender equality

 

[Zebra Cheeks]

Yeah but when bodies are specifically designed to handle pain differently I imagine it has to be a factor.

BTW tho, there's plenty of men who can kick higher than Rose did, like above their head and whatnot. What exactly did Rose do that was so hard, just the manner in which she lifted her leg?

I’m going to be honest I’m just not particularly interested in discussing the kick anymore. I’ve said just about everything I have to say on it