UPDATE: Controversial Man vs. Woman Fight Cancelled, Commission Release A Statement
We in the world of MMA fandom are used to our fair share of freak show fights; Bob Sapp, Hong Man Choi, Jose Canseco and countless others have helped add to the rich tapestry of circus acts in modern combat sports. Although, Shooto Barzil may have taken things to another level.
News broke earlier in the week that a Woman vs. Man fight was being booked this Friday’s Rio De Janeiro based Shooto event. Obviously the news was met with an uproar from fans and pundits, but also the UFC President Dana White stated that he would personally make sure the scrap wouldn’t go down.
When asked about the fight happening, Osiris Maia of the Brazilian MMA confederation told the following to MMAFighting.com:
“There’s nothing in the rules that specific prohibits a man to fight a woman, but when you interpret the rules you know that both athletes must be in the same level, so there’s no way a man should be allowed to fight a woman,”
“We haven’t received the official card yet from the promotion, we’ll get that (on Thursday) at the weigh-ins,” he continued. “I wasn’t informed about that yet. They announced it to the media only, but if you ask me if we’re allowing it to happen, I don’t think so. I think it’s a disparity. We’ll see what’s going on tomorrow at the weigh-ins.”
Well, according to a report on MMAMania.com, it appears that the commission has indeed allowed the fight to go on, although a modified rule set is in place: no knees or elbows in any position. Great, so we may see a female fighter beaten unconscious by a man but at least it won’t be via knees or elbows.
Considering the commission were adamant that the fight wouldn’t happen and that it was an unfair fight, I’m very surprised that they have eventually deemed it ok for the two to square off. Perhaps they believe that elbows and knees hold some sort of magical power that punches and head kicks don’t.
Outrage was the response when Fallon Fox was dominating the headlines. The media and fighters blasted the controversial male to female trans gender fighter worldwide, but this is a totally different kettle of fish. This could spell trouble for MMA as a whole, especially if there is a knockout in this fight.
Regardless of who wins or loses, this is a travesty. The fighters, Emerson Falcao and Juliana Velasquez should know better than to take part in such an abomination, perhaps the lure of money is too great to initiate the use of moral standards in this situation.
UPDATE: Osiris Maia of the CBMMA has released an official statement regarding the now cancelled man vs. woman fight:
“We can’t do something like that,” Maia said. “(The promoter) can ask everything, even a MMA fight with three guys against one, but we obviously won’t allow it.”
“This ‘fight’ has a social representation that is more important for the society than to the sport,” he continued. “There’s no way a man should fight a woman. This is being done only to show the society the importance of ‘Lei Maria da Penha’ (Brazilian domestic violence laws). You can’t have a man beating a woman in a sport, so it shouldn’t happen anywhere. That’s what they want to show.”
As if that statement wasn’t odd enough, the male part of the supposed freak show Emerson Falcao said this:
“I was hired to fight, and I’m going there to fight,” Falcao said. “My job is to train and fight. This is the first of the many man vs. woman fights that will come in the future. You’ll see. This is going to be huge. We’re here to shock the world.”
Whatever has happened here has done little more than bring shame on the promoters. it should also be noted that Team Nova Uniao (Emerson Falcao) and Team Nogueira (Juliana Velasquez) had stated as recently as Wednesday that the fight was for real. What a freakin’ mess.
