Stephen A. Smith Says He ‘Doesn’t Want’ To See Women Fighting In The UFC

ESPN hot take expert Stephen A. Smith was at it again on Tuesday afternoon. The outspoken talk show host had a ridiculous claim about women fighting in the UFC. While Smith said that he supports women fighting, he also said he just doesn’t want to see it on his TV.

Stephen A. Smith spoke with Larry Wilmore on the Black on the Air podcast. The conversation started with a discussion about Spurs coach Becky Hammon, and ended with Smith talking about how he doesn’t like watching women fight in the octagon.

“First of all, I love it. I think there’s an awful lot of women who are incredibly qualified to do the jobs they’re doing,” the ESPN host said. “Where I jump off the bandwagon is where they try to engage physically. For example, I don’t ever want to see a woman boxing a man. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see a woman in the UFC fighting a man—even though there are some women out there that will kick the dude’s butt.

“When I think about pugilistic sports, I don’t like to see women involved in that at all. I just don’t like it. I wouldn’t pass, 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. That’s just me.

“I certainly, what I adamantly would be against is them fighting men. I don’t think that’s cool. I’m not a proponent of that. Plus you don’t ever want to give men a license to believe that it’s all right to be physical with a woman, to be quite honest with you. You don’t want to do that.”

Maybe it would’ve been best if Stephen A. Smith kept his mouth shut on this one. I guess that isn’t part of his ESPN shtick, though.

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