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While mixed martial arts is primarily a male dominated sport, it does have female athletes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Women in Mixed Martial Arts: Fighting for Equality Part I | POW! Mixed Martial Arts & Fitness )〕 Female competition in Japan includes promotions such as DEEP Jewels. Now defunct promotions that featured female fighters were Valkyrie, and Smackgirl. Professional mixed martial arts organizations in the United States that invite women to compete are industry leader Ultimate Fighting Championship, the all female Invicta Fighting Championships, Resurrection Fighting Alliance, Bellator Fighting Championships, and Legacy Fighting Championship. Now defunct promotions that featured female fighters were Strikeforce and EliteXC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Elite XC Signing More Female Fighters | Cagepotato )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=MMAWeekly.com: EliteXC to create women's title during '09 season - MMA - SI.com )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=EliteXC still bullish about female MMA - Five Ounces of Pain )〕〔 There has been a growing awareness of women in mixed martial arts due to popular female fighters and personalities such as Gina Carano, Ronda Rousey, Megumi Fujii, Miesha Tate and Cristiane "Cyborg" Santos among others.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=EliteXC’s Shayna Baszler fighting for what’s hers | MMAjunkie )〕 Carano became known as "the face of women's MMA" after appearing in a number of EliteXC events.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Carano-'Cyborg' set to make history - Las Vegas Sun News )〕 This was furthered by her appearances on MGM Television's 2008 revival of their game show ''American Gladiators''.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=American Gladiator Gina Carano a mixed martial arts pioneer - Sports Update )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Haywire Star Gina Carano GQ January 2012 Interview )〕 But it is Ronda Rousey, and UFC's decision to allow female fighters to compete because of her, that is often cited as the reason women's mixed martial arts became known to the general public.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=How Ronda Rousey Became MMA's Biggest Star )〕 Rousey won the Best Fighter ESPY Award at the 2015 ESPN ESPY award's, beating out noted fighters such as Floyd Mayweather Jr., and becoming the first UFC and MMA fighter to win the award.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Espn Celebrates 23rd Annual Espy Awards )〕 ==History== In Japan, female competition has been documented since the mid-1990s. Influenced by female professional wrestling and kickboxing, the Smackgirl competition was formed in 2001 and became the only major all-female promotion in mixed martial arts. Other early successful Japanese female organizations included Ladies Legend Pro Wrestling, ReMix (a predecessor to Smackgirl), U-Top Tournament, K-Grace, and AX. In the United States, prior to the success of the The Ultimate Fighter reality show that launched mixed martial arts into the mainstream media, there was little major coverage of female competitions. Some early organizations who invited women to compete included, International Fighting Championships, SuperBrawl, King of the Cage, Rage in the Cage, Ring of Combat, Bas Rutten Invitational, and HOOKnSHOOT. From the mid-2000s, more coverage came when organizations such as Strikeforce, EliteXC, Bellator Fighting Championships, and Shark Fights invited women to compete.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Bellator signs Marloes Coenen, Julia Budd to open women's 145-pound division - MMA Fighting )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=EliteXC's Shayna Baszler Defends Women's MMA: 'I Don't Care What Dana White Says' - MMA Fighting )〕〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Women fighters are EXC's true elites - Yahoo Sports )〕 Outside of Japan and the United States, female competition is almost exclusively found in minor local promotions. However, in Europe some major organizations have held select female competitions, including It's Showtime, Shooto Europe, Cage Warriors, and M-1 Global. Following Zuffa's acquisition of Strikeforce in March 2011, there has been lots of speculation concerning the future of women's competition, in term both of relevance and popularity. The next step was for the UFC to pick up women's MMA, however UFC President Dana White was resistant. He has said, "There is not enough depth to create a women's division." However, Dana White warmed up to the idea of including women in the UFC and solely credits Ronda Rousey as the reason women are fighting in the UFC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Dana White: "Ronda Rousey is What It Took to Get Women in the UFC" | MMAWeekly.com )〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Women's mixed martial arts」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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