While some of the greatest and most monumental moments in MMA came from the hands, feet, claw, heart and determination of women, Stephen A. Smith admits that this is not the case.
The longtime ESPN presenter hasn’t exactly enjoyed the good graces of mixed martial arts enthusiasts over the years, especially when it comes to saying he was “disgusted” by Donald Cerrone’s performance at UFC 246 against Conor McGregor in January 2020, where it was completed in just 40 seconds.
Earlier this week, Smith spoke to Larry Wilmore about the Black in the air podcast and was asked about changing the guard at executive offices and on courts and fields across the sports world, seeing more women being hired for these positions.
One name specifically mentioned was the San Antonio Spurs’ assistant coach, Becky Hammon, being promoted to head coach after Greg Popovich was kicked out of the December 31 game against the Los Angeles Lakers. When Smith was asked if we should expect to see more of this, he changed the subject a little.
“First of all, I love it. I think there are a lot of women who are incredibly qualified to do the work they are doing, ”said Smith. “I jump out of the movement when they try to physically engage. For example, I never want to see a woman boxing a man. I don’t want to see this. I don’t want to see a woman in the UFC fighting a man – although there are some women out there who are going to kick the guy’s ass.
“When I think of boxing sports, I don’t like to see women involved in it. I just don’t like it. I would not approve, I would not promote legislative laws that prohibit this, but I don’t want to see women punching each other in the face. I don’t want to see women fighting in the octagon and things like that. It’s just me.
“I certainly, what I would be adamantly against these fighting men. I don’t think that’s cool. I am not an advocate of that. Also, you will never want to give men a license to believe that it’s okay to be physical with a woman, to be quite honest with you. You don’t want to do this. “
While 2020 brought some incredible fights for fans and viewers around the world, nothing better than the fight for the strawweight title at UFC 248 between Zhang Weili and Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who was the winner of the MMA Fighting Fight of the Year award. Weili won by a very tough decision in a centuries-old battle.