to be irritated that female fighters have to be so slim?

[Bloodystupidusernamer00lz]

I am overweight by quite a bit, I think technically according to BMI's I am obese. I am trying to do something about it by going to the gym.

The gym I attend does a lot of martial arts and many of the men do competitive fighting but so far there are no women doing it.

Where is the part about them having to be slim?

Erm, if there are no women doing it, then where does the 'having to be slim' thing come in?

Ooops, posted too soon!

There are some women that want to but none yet.

We went to a show the other day as some of the gym members had fights and I was really irritated that while there are about 8 different weight catagories for men, there were only 2 for women - 115lbs and 125lbs.

Now, I'm pretty short so both of those weights would put me in the healthy range but what if you were taller? Or just built differently? It is still possible to be physically fit and healthy and capable of doing a competitive sport if you are a female over 125lbs!

Even at my short 5ft4, the 115lb weight catagory would see me close to the underweight end of the scale, if you were say 5ft 6 which is a normal height for a women, that would make you underweight.

I need to lose a good 3 stone to put me in the healthy category but if I wanted to compete I'd have to lose about 5! That just seems like too much to me. Or aibu and my view of what is healthy all messed up?

Perhaps no one had entered in the heavier female categories?

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed_martial_arts_weight_classes#Women

I don't know very much about this admittedly, but UFC fighters have to do weight cuts before fights. So their normal body weight and their 'fighting' weight are two completely different things.

Countess there were no weight classes available for women over 125lbs so even if someone wanted to enter they couldn't (at the fight I attended anyway).

Even in the UFC the absolute maximum weight a female fighter can fight at is 135lbs, which seems unfair where there are 10 catagories for men and the super heavyweight technically has no limit.

So basically if you are a particularly tall or muscular woman you can never fight competitively.

This is true Drop but I have done quite a bit of research on the subject and the weight cut seems to be very difficult for most of the athletes that have to do it, even the men, although personally I think it is harder for women.

There are so many stories of fighters torturing themselves by starving for weeks, jogging in sauna suits and spending hours in saunas just to shave off a few extra pounds. Which seems stupid considering that most of that loss will be water weight and they could easily gain a few pounds before the actual fight just by eating and drinking normally again.

It also means fighters so into their fight weak and not at their physical best. Seems idiotic to me!

Its just because they try to pair people up and there arent many women entering. Gyms are usually pretty flexible at interclubs so they'd do their best to find a partner. Tbh though, its not necessary to do interclubs at all, you can just spar in your own gym with others of all shapes and sizes

^Sorry, I should recify that by saying if you are a tall or muscular woman you can never fight competitively without making yourself underweight, even if only temporarily.

Yes Bomb but I mean at actual competitions there are very few weight class options for women. The fight I went to was a proper competition with titles/belts/televised fights etc.

I bet they would have a lot more women entering if they made it a bit more broad! Even if they just added a 135lb and 145lb, same as the men, it would mean a lot more women would be able or willing to compete. The women that I saw fighting were absolutely tiny (in height), definitely below average height.

There are lots of different categories depending on the organisation

Sorry, organisation and sport

You are talking just about mma i think? I guess theres not enough interest yet to make up enough fighters to compete

Agree with OP observation. What I find quite interesting about this, is that women who are in the army are usually really muscular and closer to 140 lbs. Given this, 115 lbs seems like an artificially low weight.

It is crappy i agree. Just do a better sport like bjj :)

Sorry, I should recify that by saying if you are a tall or muscular woman you can never fight competitively without making yourself underweight, even if only temporarily.

Absolutely rubbish.

I am competitive kick boxer. I weigh far more.

In fact non of the women who compete from my dojo weight less that 125lbs.

You have been misled. Which martial art is this?

Its a crappy sexist one curren!

Martial arts is a broad term

I don't know of one that is sexist.

I think its ufc.

Actually that was a bit unfair of me, i think they have done a lot more recently for womens role in mma, not that.i know much about it, just what i reas

Yes I was referring to MMA. Not sure why its acceptable for women to compete in other forms of martial art at different weight catagories but in MMA you can't be over 125lbs/135lbs.

Obviously in the UFC there never used to be any women's catagories at all but I don't think they are helping themselves increase interest when there are a lot of women who might want to compete who couldn't make the weight they require. With men if you are struggling to make the weight in one catagory you could in theory switch to another but women don't have that option.

I actually read an interesting article about female fighters in other martial arts who they felt might do well crossing over to MMA. One of them was a female BJJ fighter who is 6ft tall, how would she be able to compete?

But the OP says her gym does 'many martial' arts. So why can't she do another.

UFC isn't a martial art. It's an association. The martial art is MMA. It's an association that you can complain to.

It possible that there was only up to 125lb because that day no women weighing more turned up.

Adult fights are based on weight. If you are short and heavy you could get paired with someone tall and slim.

Bantam weight goes up to 135lb. While still small. It's not 125lb. Many female UFC fighters are bantam weight.

They need a certain amount of women at certain weights to start fighting. Possibly if more women want to enter UFC at over 135lb they will add a category.

Which MMA association is it?

And the fact that you can't compete doesn't mean you can do it at the gym.

I have a go at MMA on occasion during training. Why not take it up and if you decide you want to compete. Take it up with the associations

Most people who do martial a arts do not compete.

I would email and ask them, personally why the women's weights are so low.

The gym I go to does Muay Thai, BJJ, that kind of thing and then combines it all into MMA, which is the one I want to do.

Curren, the fights I watched were arranged well in advance and the fighters paired up weeks ahead of the fight.

I hope they do add heavier weight catagories in the future in the UFC but it will be difficult to find women who fight at that weight when all the amateur organistations only go up to 125lbs.

135lb is a standard mma weight.

my friend does fight at 49 k though and she's tiny but most of them at that weight are short as well. I've seen fights at 69k which is about 11 stone. The big problem is that actually there aren't that many women fighting but ronda rousey, holly Holmes and Meisha Tate might change that.

Oh and please remember they don't sit at the fight weight all the time! It's a cut and serious dehydrate to make weight and by the time you see th fight they're probably half a stone heavier than they weighed in at.