Women’s MMA Weight Classes?

Canadian Sarah Kaufman recently made headlines with her powerslam knockout of Roxanne Modafferi to successfully defend her Strikeforce title. Title in what? Even the broadcasters weren’t certain. They fought at 135 pounds. Normally, 126 to 135 pounds is called “bantamweight”. But Strikeforce was calling it “welterweight”. Showtime, airing the fight, put up a graphic that said “lightweight”. Even veteran fight announcer Mauro Ranallo, who was calling the fight, could only refer to it as the “one-thirty-five division”.

Strikeforce’s other female champion, Cris “Cyborg” Santos, is called a featherweight on her Wikipedia page. This makes sense, because she weighs in at 145 pounds and the featherweight division spans 136 to 145 pounds. But Strikeforce calls her their middleweight champion. By extension then, female flyweights (125 pounds) would be “lightweights”.

Strikeforce does not support weight classes below the 155 pound lightweight division for men. It’s possible that they are re-classifying women’s weight classes so that casual fans will recognize the names. It may be considered too confusing if Strikeforce were to begin staging fights in bantamweight and featherweight when they have no men in those divisions. Presumedly Strikeforce is re-aligning the women’s weight divisions with the names of men’s weight divisions, even if the weights are different.

It might even be acceptable if all organizations adhered to the same specifications as Strikeforce, but they don’t. In fact, Strikeforce is the only promotion to assign different weights to the weight classes depending on gender. Since weight classes are defined by the Unified Rules of MMA, one has to wonder how they can even get away with it.

Bellator begins their third season tonight with a four-woman tournament at 115 pounds. 115 pounds?! Let’s face it folks, men and women have different body types. It’s fairly likely that female fighters weighing between 115 and 130 pounds will be the fastest growing group. Then what, Strikeforce? If 125 is lightweight, according to their apparent criteria, then what will they term this growing group of even smaller fighters, if they refuse to use the names of the men’s divisions?

Why not give the women their own weight class names. The Unified Rules don’t even provide a weight class name for 115 pounds! In fact, of all the major organizations, only Shooto has a weight class that low. They call it straw weight. Bellator is simply calling it the “Women’s (115 lbs) Tournament”. As the winner will be their only woman, I suppose “women’s champion” is sufficient for them. For now.

But if they are going to create new weight classes for women, maybe they should give them unique names. Instead of “women’s welterweight”, how about “girlyweight”?

Of course that’s a ridiculous name!

But who am I to say? I have my opinions, just like you. What’s your opinion? Any ideas? Should women have their very own weight classes, with unique names that don’t require me to say “women’s” in front of it? We want to hear what you have to say. And if you have suggestions for the actual names of the weight classes, all the better!