UFC: 5 Reasons UFC Should Embrace Women's MMA

Mixed martial arts is often billed as the "fastest growing sport in the world" by the media. But there is one aspect of the sport that unfortunately, and through no fault of its own, isn't keeping pace: women's MMA.

While women's MMA (abbreviated as WMMA) has certainly grown and is now more well-known than it ever has been, it isn't enjoying the practically exponential growth and name recognition that the UFC is enjoying.

Why? Because it isn't part of the UFC and it likely won't be able to achieve mainstream recognition and acceptance unless it is.

Many criticize and chide WMMA, but in reality there are several good reasons why the UFC should open its doors to the ladies of MMA. What are they? Read and find out!

Entertainment Value

Throughout the history of WMMA, there have been two constants: The fighters constantly bring it and its champions never "fight not to lose" like some male ones do.

On cards that have featured a women's fight, the women's fight was often the most exciting one. The UFC has recently added two new weight classes, bantamweight and featherweight, and there is talk of adding a flyweight division.

With so many new additions to the UFC, why should the women be excluded?

More Champions to Put on Cards

There are currently seven weight classes in the UFC so there are seven champions. If flyweight is added soon, there will be eight champions.

Even if each champion fights three times a year, that's only 24 events that feature a title fight. Dana White eventually plans on holding 100 events a year.

Simply put, if the UFC seeks to continuously expand it will inevitably have to pick up the women in order to fuel its growth—eventually they will exhaust every male weight class.

Even if the UFC only adds the most popular women's divisions (welterweight and middleweight), that will still add six more cards with a title at stake, should each champion fight three times a year.

Marketability

One of the "dirty little secrets" of WMMA, which isn't exactly a secret but is definitely sordid, is that sex sells. An attractive female fighter will obviously be a huge draw, while one considered harsh on the eyes won't be, despite her abilities.

Again, this isn't a secret. In fact, it's well known. It's just that it's sad that this has to be considered in any calculations about WMMA. Why can't people accept female fighters for their fighting skills rather than their looks? Are society's views on women skewed?

Regardless, parading an attractive female fighter around sports shows and on promotional material enhances marketing efforts like nothing else. Can you imagine how famous Gina Carano would have been if the UFC had WMMA instead of EliteXC and Strikeforce?

Moral/Politically Correct High Ground

American society is obsessed with equality and political correctness. While some aspects of the movement are kind of arbitrary, there are certainly ones that aren't, like the equality of women in the workplace.

While adding women to the UFC may be controversial in the beginning, in the long run it would help the UFC. What other major sports organization would be able to say they were an equal opportunity employer regarding sex?

The inclusion of women into the UFC would just demonstrate that the UFC is the sports organization of the future, and the NFL and other such organizations are those of the past.

Captivation of Society as a Whole/Better for Long Term Growth

This sort of falls under the umbrella of marketability, but it deserves its own slide nonetheless.

The vaunted premier demographic for the UFC is males ages 18-34.

While adding women to the UFC will still help woo fans in this demographic (think of all the posters and other such material highlighting the female body that would be distributed if Miesha Tate or Gina Carano were in the UFC), it would be more important for getting women involved as fans rather than as figures rolling eyes at their boyfriends/husbands.

With women drawn into the sport, a whole bloc of society would be captivated by the UFC. Over the course of a generation, millions of households will have been raised on it, and it will surge in popularity even more than it has since 1993.

Bringing women into the sport would be a tremendous boon to long-term growth (although maybe an inhibitor in the short term due to narrow-minded individuals who loath the sport and who don't view women as equals).

Matt Saccaro is a Bleacher Report featured columnist and an avid MMA fan. For articles like the one above and for brilliant 140-character insights into MMA, follow him on twitter @mattsaccaro