Stephen A. Smith is in hot water after expressing his disinterest in seeing women compete in mixed martial arts and boxing.<\/p>\n
Smith recently appeared on the \u201cBlack on the Air\u201d podcast<\/a>, where he expressed his objection to women fighting men in combat sports, and later, his disinterest<\/a> in seeing women fight at all.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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,\u201d Smith said (h\/t\u00a0MMA Junkie<\/a>). \u201cFor 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 Unsurprisingly, these controversial rant from Smith did not go over well with a number of female fighters and several women in the MMA media.<\/p>\n I appreciate your transparency @stephenasmith<\/a> . Although I wish everyone at ESPN\u2014and throughout the world\u2014saw women\u2019s sports in a positive light, I assure you that we women don\u2019t need your support. #2020WorldMMAAwardsFightOfTheYear<\/a> #NationalGirlsandWomenInSportsDay<\/a><\/p>\n — Joanna Jedrzejczyk (@joannamma) February 3, 2021<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n