When Fedor Emelianenko dominated the MMA heavyweight scene en route to becoming one of the sport’s greatest ever fighters, women’s MMA was under-the-radar and largely ignored. Now, the UFC’s current biggest star is arguably women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey, while this weekend’s UFC 185 co-main event is a women’s strawweight championship bout. Women’s MMA has come a long way in terms of visibility and popularity, but don’t count Fedor as one of its supporters.
The retired Emelianenko was interviewed by WHOA TV on a variety of topics, including Ronda Rousey’s UFC 184 win over Cat Zingano. Speaking through an interpreter, Fedor acknowledged that he watched Rousey but otherwise isn’t a fan of WMMA. (Video can be viewed at the top of the page. Quotes via MMA Junkie)
“He saw her fight. She has really interesting fights. Maybe a little bit of improvement to striking, but he doesn’t support women’s MMA.”
Fedor expanded further on the topic and outright stated that MMA is a man’s sport and that women should be in sports where “they look like women.”
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“Women shouldn’t compete in UFC/MMA because this sport is for men,” Emelianenko said through his interpreter. “There are a lot of sports where women look like women – like gymnastics, water sports, maybe some athletics.
“He’s telling that women shouldn’t fight. MMA is for men. It’s a man sport.”
This isn’t the first time that Fedor has expressed his disapproval of women in mixed martial arts. In a June 2014 interview with Russian TV he believed that “a woman must be a domestic goddess, raise her children and be feminine. There are a lot of different sports which help her in that, but MMA is not one of them.”
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