{"id":374988,"date":"2021-02-02T10:17:07","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T18:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/?p=374988"},"modified":"2021-02-02T10:46:29","modified_gmt":"2021-02-02T18:46:29","slug":"stephen-a-smith-rails-against-women-in-mma-i-dont-want-to-see-women-fighting-in-the-octagon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.tcpcharms.com\/bjpenn\/mma-news\/ufc\/stephen-a-smith-rails-against-women-in-mma-i-dont-want-to-see-women-fighting-in-the-octagon\/","title":{"rendered":"Stephen A. Smith disapproves of women in MMA: “I don’t want to see women fighting in the Octagon”"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is back with another terrible take, this time expressing his disinterest in women competing in mixed martial arts.<\/p>\n

Smith, whose gimmick relies heavily on intentionally controversial sound bites<\/a>, made his comments about women in combat sports during an appearance on the latest episode of the \u201cBlack on the Air\u201d podcast.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n

“I think that there\u2019s an awful lot of women that are incredibly qualified to do the jobs that they\u2019re doing. Where I jump off the bandwagon is when they try to engage physically,” Smith said (h\/t MMA Junkie<\/a>). “For example, I don\u2019t ever want to see a woman boxing a man. I don\u2019t want to see that. I don\u2019t want to see a woman in the UFC fighting a man even though there are some women out there that\u2019ll kick a dude\u2019s butt. We get all that. When I think about pugilistic sports, I don\u2019t like seeing women involved in that at all. I just don\u2019t like it. I wouldn\u2019t promote legislating laws to prohibit them from doing so, but I don\u2019t want to see women punching each other in the face. I don\u2019t want to see women fighting in the Octagon and stuff like that, but that\u2019s just me. What I would adamantly be against is them fighting men. I don\u2019t think that\u2019s cool. Plus, you don\u2019t ever want to give men license to believe that it\u2019s all right to be physical with a woman, to be quite honest with you. You don\u2019t want to do that.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so, outside of that, when you think about them in executive positions, first of all they\u2019re smarter than (men) a lot of times, they\u2019re more composed than us a lot of times, they\u2019re incredibly knowledgeable about these respective sports,” Smith added. “They\u2019ve had to go through trials and tribulations one couldn\u2019t even imagine most of the time. For them to get to that point, they deserve the opportunity to showcase their skill sets. Just like we have women in corporate America doing an incredible job leading companies, being executives, pushing businesses forward, etc., etc. There\u2019s no reason on earth why they can\u2019t do the same in the sports world. I support it, I\u2019m a fan of it, and I hope we see more of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it’s great that Stephen A. Smith supports women in executive roles, his comments about women in sports are going to drop him right in the middle of another social media firestorm. Of course, that’s exactly what he wants, and the trend will continue until somebody takes his microphone away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith is back with another terrible take, this time expressing his disinterest in women competing in mixed martial arts. Smith, whose gimmick relies heavily on intentionally controversial sound bites, made his comments about women in combat sports during an appearance on the latest episode of the \u201cBlack on the Air\u201d podcast.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54430,"featured_media":340017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[65232,39610],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nStephen A. Smith disapproves of women in MMA: "I don't want to see women fighting in the Octagon" | BJPenn.com<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"ESPN's Stephen A. 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