Issue 024
April 2007
With broken noses, cauliflower ears and scars criss-crossing their faces, fighters aren’t exactly known for their good looks, so why is it some women find them irresistibly attractive?
Flick on a UFC pay-per-view or go to a live MMA show and you’ll find yourself asking this question. The fighters strut around with a hot lady draped on their arm, soaking up the attention. You’re a nice guy, you’re considerate, polite, not bad looking and while not rich, you’re not tight with your money. So why is it that the bruiser with the big biceps and thick skull gets the hotties while you’re sat alone wondering what it takes to bag a chick like his?
Is there a special kind of pulling power only fighters possess? Is it the buff body that does it or is it the ability to kick your ass that seals the deal? We spoke with a number of ‘significant others’ to try and find out why they had a thing for men who fight in cages.
I’m sat only a few feet from a large octagonal-shaped cage, in which three men are locked. Two of them are stripped to the waists and wear either surf-style board shorts or boxer-style shorts. Both are slick with sweat and blood. The third man, the referee, remains as inconspicuous as possible, neatly avoiding getting in the way of the action.
As the two fighters struggle for position and neatly manoeuvre around the ring, a sweet and high voice sat behind me, accompanied by a musical laugh and the smell of flowers, asks another: “Which one do you think will win?” “I dunno,” answers the second, equally giggly but lower and with the sense of concentration in it’s tones. “But that one’s got a nice arse.”
In my time I’ve met girls who love fighting, girls who hate it and girls who are totally indifferent. The ones that hate it refuse to entertain ideas that it is anything less than barbaric, bloodthirsty and brutish. They think that everyone involved in the ‘sport’ is a thug, that those who watch it are potential thugs and anyone who tries to defend it a morally-deficient creature.
The ones who like fighting are equally passionate in their love of the sport. Go to any live show and it is the women who shout and scream the loudest. It is the women who stand on their chairs and jump up and down in a frenzy.
Women can be just as attracted to watching a good fight as any man. The display of skill, heart and brutality on offer in a good mixed martial arts fight is a heady and intoxicating mix that stirs the senses and thrills even the most straight laced of people. It would be absurd to think that women can’t appreciate this as much as a man, but they can, and do. Yes, there are some women who abhor violence, and wouldn’t dream of going near a fighter, but there are plenty of women who think fighters are about as sexy as a man can get.
By and large fighters aren’t exactly the prettiest of things. Broken and bent noses sit on faces marked with scars, dents and lumps. Fleshy protrusions passing for ears jut out from the sides of their head, and closed lips mask cracked and chipped teeth. You generally don’t hear fighters described as handsome. Instead, their faces have ‘character’. There are some, usually the very good ones, who retain their looks. Some are born ugly and have to deal with it, but do the good looking ones risk their chances with the ladies by getting in the ring?
Not necessarily it seems. Girls can be attracted to fighters for a number of reasons. “It goes back to caveman days, women want an Alpha male who can protect them,” says Serena Remedios. “And they look good, don’t they? That always helps!” Her husband Leigh is a UFC and Cage Rage veteran. Only 31 years old, he has been fighting for ten years, with underground fights and bare-knuckle bouts under his belt.
She jokes about fighters looking good, but according to the women I spoke to in the course of putting this article together, it does help. Just like a bloke will ogle a lady with ‘assets’, so a woman will drool over a guy with a six pack and biceps that can crush necks.
Ask anyone who goes out with a fighter, and a buff body isn’t the first thing they’ll mention as the thing that is most attractive. As Serena mentions, there is the feeling of protection. “You want to know that if anything goes wrong you’ve got someone who can protect you, you don’t want someone hiding behind you.”
Cage Rage ring girl Caroline Hall agrees, yet quickly refutes the suggestion she needs protecting from anyone. “All girls like being looked after,” she says. “What girl hasn’t got a thing for an Alpha male?”
“For a small feminine girl to go out with a big muscular man who can beat people up, it’s kind of attractive,” says 20-year-old ring girl Ashleigh Marley. Her boyfriend Paul Daley is one of the UK’s hottest young stars and ranked as the top welterweight in the country. “Loads of pretty blonde girls go out with meatheads, my best friend goes out with a guy who does strongman competitions, and he’s old and ugly! For her it’s a safety thing, she loves it, the big meaty arms around her…”
The Alpha factor, just as the toned body, is a constant. It seems that ladies who like fighters don’t just like what they see – they like what they offer; a sense of security, a feeling that their crush’s fighting abilities will protect them from harm.
Its easy to focus on the obvious – the confidence a fighter carries, the physical assuredness of his movements and demeanour is something women inherently find attractive. The Alpha factor, the ‘what if’ scenarios, the body… All givens as to why a woman would go for a fighter. For the everyday girls, the ones you see up and down high streets and in shopping malls, the qualities they find attractive in fighters are usually limited to the above, but for some girls it goes a lot further.
And what about the very specific types of ladies who seem to go out with fighters? Ring girls, models, strippers, lap dancers, porn stars. You only have to look at fighters such as Tito Ortiz and Ross Pointon – Ortiz is famously attached to porn starlet Jenna Jameson, and they are rarely seen apart. Pointon briefly went out with porn actress Brittany Skye. Tales of fighters going into Las Vegas nightclubs following UFC appearances and being met with plenty of ‘attention’ abound. Why is it that these women dig fighters? You go into a changing room in a strip club and ask the dancers what her boyfriend does. Without doubt a large percentage of them will answer ‘fighter’ (be it a boxer, a kickboxer or a MMA fighter). It’s almost something of a cliché among strippers and lap dancers that ‘fighters can fuck’. It seems like all that cardio training really does pay off.
But as Lolly (pictured), a Spearmint Rhino showgirl and girlfriend to MMA fighter Suley Mahmoud explains, it’s also about a meeting of life styles and a synergy not found elsewhere. “He doesn’t drink, and he’s not the kind of guy who enjoys socialising in nightclubs. That’s what I have to do for a living, so I don’t enjoy it anymore. When we have time off I don’t think ‘lets go clubbing’. I went out four times last year. He can’t do it as he takes his fighting seriously, and I don’t want to do it so it works out both ways.”
Both Suley and Lolly use their physicality in the chosen careers, although in different forms. Suley puts his training to use in a cage, while Lolly can be found hanging or spinning from a pole. Both of them take their fitness very seriously (“I was attracted by his body, I went for that look” she says) but their schedules mean they get to spend time together. “He does four or five hours [training] every night and I’m in work until four in the morning. We can spend time together during the day,” she says. On the idea of going out with someone who worked a nine to five: “I couldn’t do it.”
The added bonus of going out with a fighter is that there is a thrill there that women crave, but with less of the danger in other relationships. “I’d always been attracted to ‘bad lads,’” says Lolly. “But they didn’t come with the brains. They might last a few fiery months, maybe a year, it was tonnes of fun but nothing stable.”
It’s true that women love a bad boy. Often it’s less about the person and more about the promise. Women love the drama, they feed off the thrill of a tempestuous and passionate relationship. Whereas a bad boy might seem to possess the traits a woman is looking for, namely the self confidence (bordering arrogance), the physicality and the determination and strength of will, these lesser specimens often come with a lack of emotional maturity, and consequently the relationship breaks down.
A fighter knows about will and determination better than anyone, and they learn a lot about themselves in the ring or cage. This can often bring a calm assuredness away from the ring that women find especially appealing. Going out with a strong willed partner is something that definitely does it for Serena. “Society thinks women want a nice, weak willed partner who’ll do everything she wants. I’ve had relationships with problems, I’m quite strong willed and I’d win all the arguments, and I’d walk all over them. With Leigh you’ve got a guy who can tell me to shut up and I will!”
Its not always plain sailing though, as fighters’ training schedules can sometimes cause a little friction, especially if they are required to go away for long periods of time to train abroad. One downside for a fighter’s partner is the unwanted attention their profile can bring, namely that from female admirers. “Yeah I’ve had that a few times, people try to sit on his knee and that,” says Ashleigh. “They’ve seen how wound up I’ve got, and they can see how protective of him I am. He gets his pictures done with girls but if things went too far I wouldn’t hesitate to go up and smack them in the face!”
You may not find fighter groupies camping out the back of sports arenas just yet, and we’re still waiting for our first kiss-and-tell story concerning a MMA fighter, but it would certainly seem that as the popularity of the sport continues to grow, so does the level of female admiration fighters attract.
FIGHTER FLINGS
Tito & Jenna
MMA’s first couple have been seeing each other since mid-2006. Tito famously turned down the offer of guest of honour at a Marine’s dinner when they asked him not to bring his girlfriend, maybe the most famous of all porn stars. Can be found together ringside at almost any UFC event.
Chuck Liddell & Willa Ford
Chuck was romantically linked to 26 year old Willa Ford, a singer and TV show host (she worked on the first series of TUF). Ford has posed for Playboy in the past and was linked with a member of the Backstreet Boys before she went out with Chuck, who has always maintained they are “just good friends”. Liddell probably isn’t losing any sleep over them not being together any more – the UFC light heavyweight champ reportedly beds 15 women a week.
Antonio Rodrigo ‘Minotauro’ Nogueira & Eiko Koike
The former PRIDE heavyweight champ may be married, but that hasn’t stopped him becoming the target of Japanese actress Eiko Koike’s affections. She broke down crying in the commentary booth when he received a hammering and lost his title to Fedor. When she publicly commented she found the craggy-faced Brazilian attractive, Minotauro was suddenly the focus of housewives around Japan.
Ross Pointon & Brittany Skye
Britain’s Ross ‘The Gladiator’ Pointon was briefly yet very publicly linked with ex-porn star Brittany Skye. The buxom blonde bombshell fell for the English warrior after he appeared on the reality TV show The Ultimate Fighter. A brief and stormy relationship saw naked pictures of Ross posted on the internet before they fell out.
Andrei Arlovski & Patricia Mikula
Eastern European immigrants Andrei Arlovski and Patricia Mikula found love when they met in Chicago. The beard-sporting former UFC heavyweight champion has the raven haired Polish Playboy model’s name embroidered on his ring robes, while she has pictures of him splattered all over her MySpace page.
