Posted in: MMA, Sports, TV | Tagged: amanda nunes, Larry Wilmore, mma, steven a. smith, ufc

Stephen A. Smith Says Something Stupid About Female UFC Fighters

Published Thu, 04 Feb 2021 07:35:58 -0600

Stephen A. Smith is an "analyst" over at ESPN, which these days amounts to yelling at us about sports through the tv screen. He says controversial things to hear himself talk sometimes, the same way that Skip Bayless or any of the others at the network does. This time, his dumb opinion was about female UFC fights and disparaging female fighting in general. Appearing on the Larry Wilmore Podcast Black on the Air, Stephen A. was asked about women in sports and the glass ceilings being broken by female athletes everywhere. For some reason, Smith took an opportunity to say this about female UFC and MMA fighters:

Steven A. Smith, ESPN First Take for February 3, 2021, via YouTube screencap.

Steven A. Smith Yet Again With A Bad Take On MMA, UFC

"First of all, I love it. I think that there's an awful lot of women that are incredibly qualified to do the jobs that they're doing. Where I jump off the bandwagon is when they try to engage physically. For example, I don't ever want to see a woman boxing a man. I don't want to see that. I don't want to see a woman in the UFC fighting a man even though there are some women out there that'll kick a dude's butt. We get all that. When I think about pugilistic sports, I don't like seeing women involved in that at all. I just don't like it. I wouldn't promote legislating laws to prohibit them from doing so, 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 stuff like that, but that's just me. What I would adamantly be against is them fighting men. I don't think that's cool. Plus, you don't ever want to give men license to believe that it's all right to be physical with a woman, to be quite honest with you. You don't want to do that."

He would go on to say that he is all for women holding executive positions in sports organizations and coaching positions. My, how brave of him.

First of all, I can't name a single MMA or boxing organization, UFC or otherwise, that would sanction a man vs. woman fight. Second of all, why shouldn't women be able to fight? Stephen A. has had some terrible MMA takes in the past, but this one is the dumbest of all. This is arguably the golden age of women's MMA right now, with a plethora of fighters at all weight classes putting in the work and raising the bar higher for the upcoming female fighters. Amanda Nunes is the most dominant champion in the UFC right now. How can you say that women deserve every opportunity that comes their way, then in the same breath say, "except that one, cause I don't like it." Stephen A. is a blowhard whose shock opinions serve no purpose, and he owes the females fighters in MMA and boxing an apology for his disrespect, plain and simple.

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