At the beginning of the year ladies fighting in the UFC seemed like a pipe dream, but just 11 months later the world’s largest mixed martial arts promotion has signed its first female fighters.
In January JOE boldly predicted the ladies would feature in the UFC before this year is out and centre to that prediction was the rivalry at 135lbs between Miesha Tate and Ronda Rousey.
Last night celeb-stalker website, TMZ broke the story that Ronda Rousey became the first female fighter to be signed by the UFC. Shortly after it was revealed that Miesha Tate had also been signed. Tate took to twitter to voice her delight.
While no official bouts have been announced you can see where the UFC is going. By signing two of the biggest names in Women’s Mixed Martial arts (WMMA), Dana White is eyeing a blockbuster rematch between these ladies, though they may have to fight a few others before it happens. This probably means Sarah Kaufman, Julie Kedsie, Sarah McMann, Alexis Davis, Shayna Baszler and Liz Carmouche, to name a few, could also be signed shortly to fill out the division.
JOE spoke to Ireland’s Aisling Daly (13-4) to get her take on the UFC creating a WMMA division. Though happy with the outcome, it won’t impact on Aisling just yet, “I briefly met Miesha (Tate) at the last Invicta FC event I fought at and I think it’s great these girls have signed for the UFC. But at the same time it doesn’t really mean anything for me just yet. I’m planning to move to the 115lbs division (down from 125lbs). If they take on the lighter weight classes, my hope then is that they start to sign all the top girls in the world in all weight classes.”
As we said back in January, Dana White has a track record in doing 180 degree turns is second only to his success as an MMA promoter. Remember he was originally a non-believer in the TUF reality show, said he wouldn’t do a cross-over fight with James Toney, didn’t want Kimbo Slice in the UFC, tried to sign Fedor and thought the lack of depth in WMMA would prevent the UFC signing any female fighters.
All of which, he did an about turn on at a later point and was humble enough to admit he needed to change his mind.
And that’s why he’s the most successful man in MMA.
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