In what is considered the fastestgrowing sport in the world, women are one of the fastest-growing subsets of fans. In fact, women now represent a reported 40 percent of Ultimate Fighting Championship enthusiasts, a big proportion for a firebrand organization that once claimed no interest in appealing to them.
"There's something about watching two grown men just obliterate each other for money, and for sport, that's extremely entertaining," says Shannon MacDermott, 27, a fan from Sherwood Park, Alta.
"It's not very often that you can watch people bleed and get broken and cheer for it ... UFC allows that without any type of judgment."
Once described by U.S. Sen. John McCain as "human cockfighting," MMA - the athletic centrepiece of UFC - combines boxing, Muay Thai, jiu-jitsu, karate, judo, wrestling and other marital arts. And though its practitioners greatly value honour and respect - they'll often hug after battering each other bloody - the combat sport remains the target of much tongue-clucking by the unconverted.
But even MMA's most public torchbearer had his doubts about its mainstream appeal, particularly among women. "It's for males 18 to 34," UFC president Dana White said a few years ago. "If women watch, that's just gravy for us, that's beautiful ... But to go out and market toward women would be very expensive and not make much sense."
Women, however, came to UFC, anyway. And if you were to point to a Pied Piper, his name would be Georges St-Pierre.
The Québécois welterweight champion has been voted Canadian Athlete of the Year on Sportsnet every year since 2008, and is as classy outside the UFC Octagon as he is surgical inside it. It doesn't hurt that he appears to have been forged on Mount Olympus by Zeus himself.
"Georges St-Pierre isn't a bad-looking guy, so you'll always get the eyecandy seekers," says Drena Farrell, a UFC fan from Kelowna, B.C. "And it's such a popular sport that you almost can't help but get on board. It's like during the (hockey) playoffs, where it's so widespread that if you're not involved, you get left behind."
Source: Ottawa Citizen
No comments:
Post a Comment