I DO hit like a girl...Thanks!

Since my training has been amped up to the point of my muscles literally giving out, I've been looking for things to motivate me to rise to the challenge. Watching youtube videos of old fights has done the trick, but doing this has also made me more aware of how some people view female fighters. In the comment box of any given video, there are at least two or three derogatory comments about women fighting. Some men seem to think that, even with no training, they themselves can beat a professional female fighter. Other guys only focus on the attractiveness (or unattractiveness) of the women. They seem to believe that the women are fighting as some kind of beauty contest.

There are several reasons that these comments frustrate me, not even factoring in the fact that these are just sexist comments. First of all, every female fighter trains with guys. Sure, they may have some female sparring partners. But at least part of their training is done with guys. My main sparring partner is a guy 40 pounds heavier than me. When rolling (it's like sparring for jiu jitsu; you try to submit the opponent but it's done for training purposes), I usually go against guys bigger and stronger than myself. The training is never one sided; we all hold our own. You can not tell me that a guy with no experience can dodge a kick to the head, or successfully avoid getting arm-barred from a woman who is capable of doing the same on a trained male fighter.

Another reason for my outrage is the fact that female fights are exciting. Anyone who has ever seen a female MMA fight will have noticed that the pace is much faster than most male fights. There is a lot less waiting around, and as soon as they touch gloves the fighters usually get right to striking. The women are just as brutal and relentless as the men when it comes to unleashing on the opponent; I've seen some vicious elbows rain down on a fighter, and I've also seen a woman make it all three rounds despite some serious injuries.

Woman's MMA has been growing in popularity over the years. Even Dana White admitted that his prior comments about women having no place in the UFC were wrong, and now the UFC female fight cards draw in more viewers than some of the male fight cards. It's time that those narrow-minded guys out there stop focusing on two specific assets of the fighters (and I'm not talking about the 1-2 punch!), and start focusing on the skill of the fighters.