IS the Rise of Women Training in Mixed Martial Arts Due to Fighters like Rousey & Holm?

From Brazil to the United States and across the pond in Europe, Russia and the Orient their are young women filling up the floors of martial arts gyms.

This may be in large part due to the global popularity and reach of big fight promotions like the Ultimate Fighting Championship, Bellator & World Series of Fighting.

Not to mention that Female Fighters are getting big Hollywood deals and the attention of Wall st.

Female Fighter ‘Rowdy Ronda’ Rousey Takes on Hollywood

The Ultimate Fighting Championship in Dec 2014 signed a landmark sponsorship deal with Reebok.

Holly Holm just won the Championship by knocking out long time champion Rhonda Rousey.

The alliance between two global sports brands is similar to the exclusivity deals the NFL, NBA, Major League Baseball and other worldwide sports leagues and teams sign with well-established fitness companies, with a twist:

UFC will be distributing the vast majority of the revenue received from this partnership to the athletes, Fertitta said, and the company is investing in this platform to create long-term value in the brand and its athletes. What’s more, Reebok is pouring money into research and development of apparel and gear specifically designed for MMA athletes. Read Full Article…

In just sponsorship payout through Reebok the 4 females on the card took home 150,000 of the $245,000 that Reebok dished out to sponsor fighters.

Miesha Tate: UFC-Reebok sponsorship pay structure ‘unfair’ for women’s MMA

The women of the ring took home more than 50% of the Sponsorship payout of the 28 total athletes who fought on the card in Australia according to this article the overall pay structure is not fair for women.

The fighters both male and female have been vocal about their displeasure with the current pay structure for putting their bodies on the line in some would call more dangerous then football, baseball and hokey combined.

Affects of Famous Female Fighters: Training martial arts becomes more accepted in the Mainstream.

It’s safe to say that the rise of female combat athletes is affecting communities across the globe as young women are watching their brothers training in Martial Arts, Karate and Now MMA.In fact, Holly Holm got started in a New Mexico fitness Kickboxing class in her first year of high school.

“We have been seen a sharp incline over the past 2 years in the amount of women that want to train in Muay Thai & Jiu Jitsu. In the 90’s it was 1 female student to 10 male. Currently its changed to 6 Females to 10 men. Even if their initially asking about kids classes some how they find their way into our adult classes. The same numbers go for parents wanting their children to enroll for lessons.” says Dion Riccardo founder of Victory Martial Arts Academies. He and his partners have built a growing list of 8 Midwest MMA Gyms most of which are near Chicago and it’s suburbs.

He goes on “When we start a Martial Arts Academy in an area with a dense population of families like our newest school in Plainfiled Illinois we see many females of all ages wanting to try it out.”

In a post on this site in 2011, there were 18.1 million Americans doing some form of Martial Arts. Of the little over 18 million Americans 25% were teenage boys and 22% were teenage girls.

The Rise of Females training both young and old is undisputed and the overwhelming popularity of Women Mixed Martial Arts Athletes with inspiring stories are definitely inspiring women to get a friend and check it out as well as enroll their daughters.

“Coach Riccardo concludes that he finds that “Most of the students in general feel like training helps them to FOCUS in & out of the class. Also, students are generally more self disciplined then their friends that do not train and provides structure that we all need. Most impacted are females, I always here from women students that doing martial arts makes them feel empowered.”

As more female weight classes are added to the PPV events and other shows you have to wonder if even more will that mean even more will start to train?

The BIG PPV Events still have much growing as they have yet to do a all 28-30 women’s card. Interesting indeed!

About Dion Riccardo