UFC bantamweight Sean O’Malley took a moment away from preparing for his first title fight to start wondering about the UFC women’s division. O’Malley proposed on a recent episode of his podcast that the UFC create an entirely separate entity, the WUFC, to solely house female fighters.
“What if there was a ‘WUFC’? What if they had their own program? Would it last? Would they be able to sell pay-per-views, would they be able to sell out arenas?
Sean O’Malley Proposes Separate Women-Only UFC
I’m just asking. What if it was the ‘WUFC’? It’s still the UFC, it’s still Dana, it’s still the UFC pushing these fights and promoting them – would it last?”
The UFC had zero female fighters on the roster for the first twenty years of its existence. The first female fight launched when Ronda Rousey made her promotional debut at UFC 157.
Rousey became a major star for the promotion, and women now comprise about twenty per cent of the UFC roster. Fights in the women’s division regularly feature on fight cards headlined by male fighters and vice versa.
Some commentators have lamented the reigns of Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko, who dominated three of the four UFC women’s divisions. Both seemed like indestructible champs until recently: Shevchenko lost her flyweight title to Alexa Grasso, while Nunes retired only weeks ago.
O’Malley clarified that he did not think the women in the promotion were “bad,” just not as entertaining as the men. O’Malley may not remember his own recent spate of lopsided decision victories, or his early UFC appearances as a one-sided betting favorite.
“We’re not saying they’re bad. We’re talking from a pure entertainment point of view. Look at the WNBA, look at the NBA. There is a few girls fights that are very entertaining. There is a few…
WNBA – WUFC, I’d like it. I think it’d be interesting. We’re not talking skill, they’re very, very skilled. I’m talking from a pure entertainment perspective. Like, ‘I can’t f****** wait for this fight.’”
It’s not likely to be a business strategy that the UFC wants to embrace, considering the success the promotion enjoys with its current approach.
Regardless, Sean O’Malley is set to do as he has long threatened to do and challenge for the UFC bantamweight title. O’Malley will face reigning champ Aljamain Sterling at UFC 292 in the main event.
Co-headlining the event will be women’s strawweight champ – and Fight of the Year winner – Zhang Weili, defending her title against Amanda Lemos.
