Stephen A. Smith is known for his hot takes but he often pushes the line too far into controversy.
The ESPN analyst has consistently made headlines over the past month following Smith’s public feud with LeBron James.
His outspoken personality has led to some backlash from the MMA world in the past with Dana White and Joe Rogan pushing back against the comments he made about Donald ‘Cowboy’ Cerrone.
Whilst he doesn’t only have bad things to say, as evident in Smith’s recent praise of Jon Jones, he still has a tendency to say outlandish things.
The most controversial thing he’s ever said about MMA and the UFC in particular happened in 2021 when he made a comment about personal taste that left the majority of fans and the promotion’s roster itself questioning his statement.
Stephen A. Smith stated that he doesn’t want to watch women fight in the UFC
Back in 2021 during an episode of the Black on the Air podcast, Stephen A. Smith and Larry Wilmore got onto the subject of women in sports.
Whilst the three current female weight classes are deeply engrained into the UFC, at this point, there was a period of time where women didn’t compete inside the Octagon.
Dana White’s opinion on this matter changed over time largely due to the growing popularity of Ronda Rousey who competed in the first women’s fight in UFC history at UFC 157 in 2013 where she defended the bantamweight title against Liz Carmouche.
Smith has been known for some controversial takes in the past regarding women in sport and in this instance, the conversation had nothing to do with MMA or competing.
Despite the topic of discussion being about the first female general manager in the MLB and the first female NBA head coach, Smith went on a long-winded diversion.
He said that he was incredibly happy to see both of those things happen but, in his own words, he “jumps off the bandwagon when they try to engage physically.”
Smith goes on to say that he doesn’t want to see women fighting against men which is completely the opposite of a hot take however, he then makes a very different point.
“When I think about pugilistic sports, I don’t like seeing women involved in that at all. I just don’t like it. I wouldn’t promote legislating laws to prohibit them from doing so, but I don’t want to see women punching each other in the face. I don’t want to see women fighting in the octagon and stuff like that, but that’s just me.”
Stephen A. Smith was called out by several UFC stars for his comments
Several female fighters responded to Smith’s controversial comments about not wanting to watch women fight in the UFC.
Joanna Jedrzejczyk, who produced an instant classic title fight against Zhang Weili the year before, posted on social media to make it clear that they don’t need his go ahead in order to compete.
“I appreciate your transparency @stephenasmith. Although I wish everyone at ESPN—and throughout the world—saw women’s sports in a positive light, I assure you that we women don’t need your support.”
Molly McCann also gave her thoughts on the matter in an interview with Insider ahead of her fight with Lara Fritzen that took place several days after Smith’s comments.
“How can you say that when you’re on such a platform? Could you imagine Serena Williams watching that? It’s not just fighters he’ll have offended. It’s every sportswoman and maybe every sportsman. Stephen Smith needs to give his head a wobble. When I win on Saturday, I’m going to say something on the microphone: ‘I’ll see you in the car park!’”
