From Ronda Rousey to Amanda Nunes, fight fans have always fallen into the fantasy of comparing female MMA fighters to their male counterparts.
Even UFC commentator and MMA veteran Joe Rogan has been quoted saying “There’s a lot of guys her size she could beat, I mean, a lot.
If you took the roster of the UFC’s bantamweights, 135 pounds, and you paired them up against Ronda Rousey, she might be able to beat 50 percent of them.
That’s not a joke”, about Ronda Rousey taking on some male fighters.
So, can a top-notch female fighter take on an average male fighter?
To answer this question, we’ll have to briefly talk about the difference between the physiology of the average male and female body.
The average man is stronger than the average woman, and it’s not even close.
Men produce a lot more testosterone than women, which is responsible for muscle gains in men and high levels of aggressiveness.
Men also have a higher bone density than women, with the total body strength of a woman being reported to be about 65% lesser than that of her male counterpart, which is why you could see a tall and skinny man being able to outwrestle a female that looks twice his size.
But does this wide difference in strength translate to professional MMA fighters?
Yes, it does.
On the 29th of October last year, there was a mixed-gender fight in Poland between female arm wrestler Ula Siekacz and male mixed martial artist Piotrek Muaboy.
The fight has been heavily criticized by the MMA community and other groups for the sheer brutality of it, considering how Piotrek brutally mauled Ula regardless of how skilled she appeared to be initially.
That would be the deciding factor in a fight between male and female fighters.
The female might be far ahead in terms of skill level and technique, but the fact remains that men are much stronger and more aggressive, and will be able to push a pace that the female might struggle with.
Now, this isn’t to say that all professional male fighters will beat all professional female fighters, as there is no way of actually making an accurate judgment on this.
But when you also add the fact that Lucia Rijker, who was dubbed the most dangerous woman on the planet in her time in boxing and kickboxing, got knocked out brutally by just an amateur male Muay Thai fighter, it doesn’t make for good reading for female MMA fighters.
So in summary, while some female fighters are more skilled than males, the discrepancy in their respective physiologies will prove to be the deciding factor.
This is why it will be extremely difficult and rare for a female fighter, regardless of who she is, to come away with a win against a male fighter.
