One Championship’s Bi Nguyen roasts Stephen A. Smith for women’s MMA remarks

ESPN analyst draws criticism from fans and fighters for saying ‘I don’t want to see women punching each other in the face’

ONE atomweight Nguyen posts video mocking 53-year-old Smith’s boxing technique compared to her own

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Stephen A Smith (left) spars in a video comparing his technique to Bi Nguyen (right). Photo: Twitter

Published: 9:52pm, 4 Feb 2021Updated: 9:52pm, 4 Feb 2021

ESPN analyst Stephen A. Smith has sparked a huge backlash from the MMA community with comments considered sexist this week.

Smith – who previously sparked outrage in MMA circles by claiming Donald Cerrone gave up against Conor McGregor in January 2019 – drew ire from fans and combat sports athletes again while discussing female fighters in an appearance on the Black on the Air podcast.

“Where I jump off the bandwagon is when they try to engage physically,” Smith said. “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’ll kick a dude’s butt. We get all that.

“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,” he added.

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