I guess it’s all what you’re used to. I don’t follow boxing or UFC sports much, and pics of beaten male boxers does not raise an eyebrow in me, but I found the video and pics of the Rousey - Holm fight splashed all over the media to be viscerally disturbing.
I get that most of commentary was that Rousey was an arrogant ass who got too big for her britches and got the whipping she deserved, and objectively Holm was amazing in action. She was like a sinewy panther as she controlled the action and rained down shots.
But the aftermath… Rousey sitting there stunned with her bloody and battered face, it was just too much like a domestic violence beating or maybe I’m not used to seeing women with that kind of damage. Even if she was a jerk I felt sorry for her. There’s just this visceral “eesh” you feel in the pit of your stomach looking at those pics.
I appreciate the athleticism but I don’t think I’m ever going to be a big fan of women’s fighting.
Yes, I feel the same as as you guys. I’m a woman, too, for what it’s worth. I don’t really enjoy watching fights of any kind, but you’re right. It kind of gives you a sick feeling in your stomach to see it…
I have a strong aversion to violence, and don’t watch fights or look at fight photos. The gender doesn’t matter. It is disgusting to me. Well maybe gender does matter because the female version does seem even worse and even creepier.
I’m a fan of MMA, but I don’t understand why the UFC has started to put women on the fight cards. I have zero interest in watching women fight. Maybe its a legal thing where they were about to be sued for discrimination.
Oh I get the attraction it was a spectacle watching two powerful women go at it. It is different, women do not (IM amateur O) fight like men and they are more flexible. Some of Holm’s moves made her body look like a writhing snake. It’s the aftermath that was repelling.
I’ve never understood this thought process. “I don’t have any interest in it, therefore I don’t understand why they would do it”. Just because you don’t like it doesn’t mean other people don’t. FTR, I’m not just talking about this, but I’ve seen people say nearly this exact same thing about all kinds of other subjects as well.
You can understand, I presume, that other people, possibly even a majority of other people, like things that you don’t.
It’s like saying “I don’t like coffee, I don’t understand why they keep making it”.
…heaven forbid that these women actually have agency, that they actually want to fight on the world stage and that people actually want to pay to see them. Its kinda sad that your first reaction to women doing exactly the same thing as men is to think “was this all the result of a law suit?”
When you change your perception of pain the sport is not quite as brutal as it appears to be. Pain without fear is different than pain with fear. At some point the pain will disable a fighter depending on his threshold but until he reaches that point its not as bad as it might appear. That being said it bothers me a lot to see women beat each other up. Overly brutal MMA fights also bother me.
MMA is a little too close to the spectator sports from the Roman era, which indicated a sick society looking for more and more bloody spectacles to entertain them. Boxing can be a bloody event, but MMA fighters are seriously trying to fuck each other up, it would seem.
Not long ago, people weren’t used to women wearing trousers, voting, holding positions of authority or participating in any lucrative sports. Times change, and in cases like this that’s a good thing. It doesn’t matter if you like it or not.
I don’t like fighting sports in general. But I have a similar experience with other sports. If I’m watching women’s soccer or basketball, I really don’t like it when players get hurt. With men’s sports, it doesn’t bother me nearly as much.
I’m a woman, an MMA fan, and I watched the Holm-Rousey fight in slow-motion on a loop. I could watch it a million more times, in fact. Not only was it a technically amazing fight (well, from Holm’s end, anyway), but I will admit part of me was really glad to watch Rousey get knocked on her ass.
The only fight I’ve ever seen that has pegged my disturb-o-meter is the Silva-Weidman fight where Silva breaks his leg. Watching his calf wrapping around Weidman’s, then seeing him step back onto the broken leg was pretty horrifying. The fact that he was back in the ring less than a year later was INSANE.
Generally not true. The majority of MMA fighters know and respect each other. They touch gloves at the beginning of the bout and congratulate each other at the end. No one is trying to do any permanent damage to the other fighter, but they are trying to knock their opponent out. The referees always jump in before serious damage is done.