“She’s a ring girl”
“Her boyfriend’s a fighter”
“She’s here because she thinks the fighters are hot”
“Her boyfriend’s a fighter”
“She’s here because she thinks the fighters are hot”
So go the mindless, sputtering comments thrown about casually by ignorant male mixed martial arts fanatics upon first glance of a female in the crowd. Of course, there are the longtime mixed martial arts pundits who are occasionally optimistic, but with the emergence of MMA as an accepted mainstream sport, there too come the twiddling idiots who don’t think to look beyond a superficial first impression.
What an obvious topic for my first editorial piece for this website, don’t you think? I went the easy route and began spouting my opinion on the stereotype of women in this sport, as there are in almost any other sport. We were only “supposed to be” ring girls, arm pieces, and faces in the crowd for video cameras to pan to for us to “woo hoo” and shake our cleavage to. But a growing group of hard-working women, from journalists to photographers to well-educated fans are catching the attention of the everyman fan and pushing these palpable first impressions aside. I, myself am extremely proud to be a part of that burgeoning group.
I began my fascination with mixed martial arts in the way many in my generation did; through UFC 1. A lifelong fan of professional wrestling (yes, all of my six years of age at the time), my older brother pointedly asked me one day if I would like to watch real fighting. Excitedly, I said yes, my tomboy nature fully evident. I couldn’t take my eyes off the ravenous reality of the sport. I never did fully embrace another sport after that. In the years following, I pursued other avenues in life (the performing arts being the main thing; I love to sing), but always maintained a buoyed interest in MMA, particularly the UFC. I was admittedly not exposed to Pride Fighting Championships until about 4 years ago, when I saw my first Pride DVD and was completely awe-struck. Funnily enough, some hardcore fans think that makes me not a “real” fan since I didn’t follow Pride from the start. I think that is completely ridiculous. One of my pet peeves is meeting a fellow MMA fan and feeling like I need to spend the subsequent minutes trying to prove my worth and knowledge as a fan of the sport. It’s this kind of ignorance that encourages me to defy those stereotypes. And that is where the idea for NtheKlinch was born.
NtheKlinch doesn’t aim to be a groundbreaking website for mixed martial arts; not in the least. What the site does aim to do is assist in opening eyes to MMA from the female perspective, maybe different but not any less knowledgeable than the male perspective.
What an obvious topic for my first editorial piece for this website, don’t you think? I went the easy route and began spouting my opinion on the stereotype of women in this sport, as there are in almost any other sport. We were only “supposed to be” ring girls, arm pieces, and faces in the crowd for video cameras to pan to for us to “woo hoo” and shake our cleavage to. But a growing group of hard-working women, from journalists to photographers to well-educated fans are catching the attention of the everyman fan and pushing these palpable first impressions aside. I, myself am extremely proud to be a part of that burgeoning group.
I began my fascination with mixed martial arts in the way many in my generation did; through UFC 1. A lifelong fan of professional wrestling (yes, all of my six years of age at the time), my older brother pointedly asked me one day if I would like to watch real fighting. Excitedly, I said yes, my tomboy nature fully evident. I couldn’t take my eyes off the ravenous reality of the sport. I never did fully embrace another sport after that. In the years following, I pursued other avenues in life (the performing arts being the main thing; I love to sing), but always maintained a buoyed interest in MMA, particularly the UFC. I was admittedly not exposed to Pride Fighting Championships until about 4 years ago, when I saw my first Pride DVD and was completely awe-struck. Funnily enough, some hardcore fans think that makes me not a “real” fan since I didn’t follow Pride from the start. I think that is completely ridiculous. One of my pet peeves is meeting a fellow MMA fan and feeling like I need to spend the subsequent minutes trying to prove my worth and knowledge as a fan of the sport. It’s this kind of ignorance that encourages me to defy those stereotypes. And that is where the idea for NtheKlinch was born.
NtheKlinch doesn’t aim to be a groundbreaking website for mixed martial arts; not in the least. What the site does aim to do is assist in opening eyes to MMA from the female perspective, maybe different but not any less knowledgeable than the male perspective.
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