Alex Goff’s ‘Punch in the Face’ – February 25, 2013

Three things we learned this weekend:

1. It is possible to have a signature finishing hold in the UFC. Ronda Rousey again showed she is a virtuoso of the move called an armbar last night in her win over Liz Carmouche. Liz showed heart and toughness going against the champion but not unlike the other seven professional and her two amateur fights, Ronda ended it quickly with her armbar. Seemingly Ronda has a business opportunity beating down her door as I think we would all like to know how to defend ourselves with one hold that is impossible to defeat. 1^st step encounter an attacker, 2nd step armbar: An instructional guide to the mastery of the only irreversible submission by Ronda Rousey. This is a book just waiting to be written.
2.  People like fights. I believe you had a vocal minority of internet fans and writers try to test the limits of this argument. Without the use of real data or facts, they built the argument that Ronda Rousey and women in general did not earn or deserve the opportunity that was presented to them last night. We learned back in 2008 with the introduction of Gina Carano to the national stage that she was able to attract viewers and last night’s sold out crowd in the Honda Center shows that fight fans have respected women for a while. Ronda securing the attention from many major news outlets to include Time Magazine cements to me that people enjoy fights. There is a logical and responsible threshold to this. Weights and Sexes shouldn’t be tampered with. I don’t think we will ever see a responsible governing body allow a man vs. women fight, but we know within our current confines of weight and sex, fighting works. Women fighters will be respected and interest will be garnered for their fights. Women will face the same limitations that men face as you will see matchups that won’t be as interesting as others but it appears that Women fighters are okay in the American public’s eye.
3. Last night we may have just learned how stable the road can be for an athlete to come out as a homosexual. A Marine who did three tours in Iraq, Mixed Martial Artist Liz Carmouche also happens to be a lesbian.  Leading up to her opportunity of a lifetime to fight in the main event of UFC157, some writers and media coverage went very far to discuss this aspect of the story.  I don’t want to downplay the significance of any of the events that took place last night including the fact that we saw the debut of the first openly homosexual fighter. We learned that in the world of fighting a person’s sexuality isn’t a factor when determining who can beat the other up. What we will come to learn is that a person’s sexuality isn’t a factor in who can run faster or catch the ball better either. Being openly gay has less impact on performance than someone’s dietary choices. Hopefully Liz will inspire and pave the way for other homosexual athletes in other popular sports to come out.

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