UFC (and Dana White) Have Come A Long Way With Women Fighters
By Cassandra Cousineau for LVSportsBiz.com
Las Vegas-based Ultimate Fighting Championship had another big night at its Apex building in the southwest valley off the 215 Saturday when UFC Vegas 10 offered multiple finishes and hard fought outcomes. Perhaps none were more impactful than 115 pound strawweights Michelle Waterson and Angela Hill’s back-and-forth slugfest giving Waterson a razor close split decision.
Giving his final thoughts after the event, UFC President Dana White was elated with the main event: “This is one of those fights where there is no loser. It was so close.”
To say White has evolved in his belief in female fighters to participate in the UFC would be an understatement. Back in 2011, White, famously told TMZ Sports he’d never sign a woman to a UFC contract. Nearly a decade later, not only are women headlining cards, they are big money makers for the promotion.
Originally, the two were scheduled as the co-main event. When a positive COVID-19 test forced light heavyweight Glover Texiera to pull out of his fight against Thiago Santos, instead of finding a new opponent for Santos, Waterson and Hill were elevated to the top of the ticket. It was actually Waterson’s third stint as the main event.
White’s renegade and irreverent style has positioned UFC as the premier combat sports promotion in the world. Starting with Ronda Rousey in 2012, the company’s first bantamweight champion, women have provided memorable moments in fighting and for the cash register for UFC.
Rousey was followed by fighter-turned-movie-star Gina Carano, and a laundry list of female fighters representing just about every continent in the world.
Most recently, Chinese-born strawweight champion Weili Zhang is a rising super star who could eclipse Rousey as a marketing powerhouse for UFC due to the enormous population she is capable of reaching in China and Asia.
Zhang represents the next frontier for UFC to make significant headway in international markets. Estee Lauder features her in a new campaign as the first Chinese global champion while pitching the brand’s Double Wear foundation. It’s only the second time a female MMA fighter has secured a lucrative beauty product endorsement deal. Rousey’s contract with Pantene in 2016 was the first.
Former UFC fighter and fan favorite Paige Van Zant has endorsement deals with multiple brands, including Reebok, Monster Energy Drinks, Metro PCS and Harley-Davidson.
At the top of the food chain is the lioness herself, bantam and featherweight champion, Brazil’s Amanda Nunes. A fighter who already is legitimately been mentioned as the best women’s mixed martial artists ever, Nunes has been all over ESPN featured in Modelo commercials.
LVSportsBiz.com asked the 34-year-old Waterson, who has her own lucrative endorsement partnership with Body Armor, which is partially owned by The Coca-Cola Company, how she felt in 2011 when she thought the door was closed for that opportunity.
The fighter nicknamed as ‘The Karate Hottie” let her usually effervescent guard down, and got emotional. Fighting through tears, “It is the coolest thing in the world. I remember being in my apartment moving out to Albuquerque, New Mexico, still being a local fighter and having a vision board in my apartment. At that time, Dana didn’t think that he’d ever see girls in there. I still had it on my vision board that I was going to be fighting for UFC. Here I am fighting for the main event, and It’s amazing.”
