Dana White: UFC Simply Testing Waters with Women’s MMA

UFC president Dana White may have finally caved by inking now-former Strikeforce bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey (Pictured) to a watershed contract, one year after proclaiming a female would never set foot inside of his Octagon, but it appears whichever ladies he decides to allow to join Rousey will be signed on a touch-and-go basis. As White has long professed, there simply aren’t enough Ronda Rouseys in the world to sustain women’s mixed martial arts long-term. That’s why the UFC is strictly bantamweight-only right now. “We’re bringing in the 135-pound division,” White stated following Saturday’s UFC 154 post-fight press conference. “I’m trying this whole women’s thing out. Obviously, Ronda is the champ. I think Ronda has the potential to be a big star. She’s already getting media that we’ve never even gotten before and she’s never even set foot in the UFC yet. “That’s the division that we’re bringing in. We’re bringing in the 135-pound division. So, I don’t know. We’ll see.” When asked who Rousey will make her highly-anticipated debut against, which athletes will be recruited to challenge the “Rowdy” one for her crown and if her opposition would be signed to exclusive UFC contracts, White wasn’t prepared to answer those questions. However, he made it clear the promotion is simply testing the WMMA waters. “This thing is all new, we’re kinda playing with it,” White revealed. “We’ll kinda see how this thing plays out. “I know this, over the next couple of years we’ve got fights in the 135-pound division – good fights. Ronda’s the champ, she’ll come in. We’ll see how this thing plays out.” As of today, White revealed Rousey is the UFC’s lone female fighter. Oddly, her bitter rival, Miesha Tate, tweeted just 11 days ago that she had become the promotion’s second signee. White has been controlling the UFC’s reins for the past 11 years, and just because he’s finally decided to give the ladies a shot in the big leagues, you get the sense they will be put on a very short and tight two-year leash.