The story of women in combat sports is a story of persistence in the face of institutional resistance, and of athletes who competed, trained, and competed again regardless of whether the mainstream was watching or approving. Understanding that history is part of understanding why the modern landscape — with women’s Olympic boxing, professional MMA, and thriving BJJ communities — exists at all.
Early Wrestling and Judo
Women’s participation in combat sports predates the modern era by more than a century. Female wrestlers competed in traveling shows and exhibitions in the late 1800s and early 1900s in the United States and Europe, though usually positioned as entertainment rather than taken seriously as athletes.
Judo, founded by Jigoro Kano in Japan in 1882, admitted female students within years of its founding. Rushu Tomita and Masako Noritomi are among the early women who trained and helped spread judo internationally in the early 20th century. Keiko Fukuda, who trained directly under Kano’s system, became the most senior-ranked female judoka in history, achieving the 10th degree black belt and continuing to teach into her late nineties. She was also the last surviving direct student of judo’s founder.
Women’s Boxing: A Long Road to Recognition
Women have been boxing since at least the 18th century — there are documented accounts of female prize fights in London in the 1720s. But formal recognition was another matter. For most of the 20th century, women were actively prohibited from competing in amateur boxing sanctioned by major governing bodies.
The modern revival began gaining momentum in the 1970s and 1980s, with figures like Cathy “Cat” Davis and Jackie Tonawanda pushing for recognition and professional bouts. In 1993, Christy Martin began a career that would bring women’s boxing to mainstream attention, culminating in a nationally televised bout in 1996 that drew millions of viewers who had never seen women’s boxing.
The landmark: women’s boxing was finally added to the Olympic program in 2012 at the London Games. Katie Taylor of Ireland and Nicola Adams of Great Britain became household names, and Adams won the first Olympic gold medal in the sport — a historic moment for an athlete who had spent years fighting for the right to compete at the Games at all.
Jiu-Jitsu and Grappling
Women have been a growing presence in Brazilian jiu-jitsu since the sport’s expansion outside Brazil in the 1990s. Today, figures like Gezary Matuda, Luiza Monteiro, and Ffion Davies are recognized as among the best competitors in the world regardless of gender. The ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship, one of the sport’s most prestigious events, has featured women’s divisions since 2005. In 2022, the women’s divisions at major events drew some of the most technically impressive matches in the tournament.
MMA and the UFC
When the UFC added a women’s division in 2012 and signed Ronda Rousey as its inaugural champion, it marked a seismic shift. Rousey became the first female UFC champion, the first woman inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and one of the highest-paid fighters in the organization’s history regardless of gender. Her success opened the door for the women’s divisions that exist today across multiple weight classes.
Rousey’s path was not smooth — she competed for years before the UFC acknowledged that a women’s division was commercially viable. The generation of athletes who came before the spotlight, competing in smaller organizations and international events, made her success possible.
Valentina Shevchenko, Amanda Nunes, and Zhang Weili have each built careers defined by technical excellence and sustained championship reigns that would be celebrated in any sport. Amanda Nunes became the first woman in UFC history to hold two divisional titles simultaneously — a feat that took years of elite performance in two weight classes.
Why This History Matters
When you walk into a gym to train, you are joining a lineage of women who trained when it was not popular, who competed when they were not wanted, and who built the infrastructure that makes your training possible. That is worth knowing. And the history is still being written — in competitions happening this weekend, in gyms being opened, and in every woman who decides to start training for the first time.
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