Since 2022, the population of female wrestlers at the high school level has quintupled. This exponential growth is just one of the many ways women have made mixed martial arts (MMA) their own. Although men have dominated MMA and combat sports, women in combat have become exponentially more entertaining over the last few decades. Fans can see this from the American Olympic Wrestling team’s performance, the change in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) female division, and the sheer amount of time that women have been competing in MMA.
To begin with, the American women’s wrestling team outperformed the American men’s team at the 2024 Olympic Games. American medalists include Sarah Hildebrandt and Amit Elor, who won gold at 50kg and 68kg, respectively. Kennedy Blades brought home silver at 76kg, and Helen Maroulis won bronze in the 57kg weight class. Maroulis was also the first American woman to win Olympic gold in wrestling during the 2016 Rio Games.
The 2024 Games were also monumental for women’s wrestling in America because Elor became the youngest American medalist in wrestling, regardless of gender. In an interview with Andy Hamilton of FloWrestling, Elor said, “This is gonna sound crazy, but I feel like I have a little bit of imposter’s syndrome. I still feel like that little kid that just started wrestling and now I’m an Olympic champion. I don’t believe those words I just said — it’s going to take a little bit of time.” Maroulis became the first American woman and sixth woman ever to win three consecutive medals in wrestling. After her success in 2024, she told Hamilton in an interview, “I’ve had a lot of cries with the realistic thought this could be my last Olympics. I really thought I was going to win in the semifinals and I thought all my preparations were amazing. When that didn’t happen, I just battled with a lot emotionally. I haven’t dealt with heartbreak at the Olympics yet, and it was very hard all day to keep those tears at bay, focus on the job, and really wrestle with joy.” The way American women competed at the 2024 Olympics has created many role models for the next generation of women’s wrestling.
The female division has undergone revolutionary changes since Ronda Rousey’s Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Debut in 2012. Rousey was the first female fighter in the UFC in 2012, where she was a dominant force at bantamweight. In 2015, she was titled Most Dominant Athlete by Sports Illustrated Magazine and lived up to the name. She was able to defend her belt six times before being knocked out (K.Oed) by Holly Holm during UFC 193. This was a monumental fight card for the women’s division in 2015. It seated 56,214 people for the fight between Jessica Penne and Joanna “Champion” Jedrzejczyk, who defended her title. Thomas Gerbasi, a writer for the UFC website, said this is “A golden age for women’s mixed martial arts” in his article “The Rise of Women’s MMA.”
Rousey’s journey in the UFC inspired many women to join in on MMA. Gina Carano, a former mixed martial artist for Strikeforce, said, “Going to the UFC fights, I remember sitting up in the last row and thinking, ‘Someday, someday,’ and being able to watch other women experience that and doing it with such confidence, it’s really changed a lot.” Carano talks about how she has struggled with being one of the few women in her sport and how the growth Rousey inspired has helped her.
Some may say that since men have dominated combat sports for so long, they are inherently more entertaining. However, women have been in MMA for almost three decades. On Becky Levi’s fight page on Tapology, she has a 7-1 record as of Dec. 5, 2000. She debuted in 1997 against Betty Fagan, where, according to ESPN, Levi finished Fagan in less than 2 minutes. This match was the first women’s bout on North American soil. In an interview with o2 Martial Arts Academy, Levi said, “From there, my career got started when Dan met me. He was impressed with my size, and once I told him about my athletic background, he thought that he could get me into fighting and/or pro wrestling. I kind of thought it was a joke because I didn’t know women did that sort of thing.” And the truth was, women didn’t do “that sort of thing.” Levi was a pioneer for all women in any type of combat sport. She took the first step in bridging the gap between men and women in all kinds of combat sports.
It’s past time for people to realize how incredible women in combat sports have truly become. It’s time to celebrate all the women who have made women’s MMA possible rather than comparing them to the men in the sport. If someone brings up Adeline Grey or Amanda Nunez, chances are very few people would know who they’re talking about. However, if someone talks about Mike Tyson or Connor McGregor, almost everyone knows who they are. The division between men and women has been a problem in almost every sport. But the division is made worse for women in combat sports. Women need to be celebrated equally instead of being ridiculed because it’s “easier” to fight, wrestle, or box women in comparison to men.
Even though men have dominated the MMA industry, women have become more important and more entertaining over the years. From Becky Levi to Amit Elor, women are an incredibly influential force in combat sports.
