Gender Issue Two

Demetrious Johnson is currently champion of the flyweight division in the UFC. This makes him the smallest title holder in that organization. He stands 5 foot 3 inches tall. He has to weigh in at 125 pounds, although his walking-around weight is likely up to ten pounds more than that.

Why doesn't he fight the Heavyweight champ, Cain Velasquez? Granted, he's a bit bigger at 6 foot 1 inch and 240 pounds.
 

OK, that would be silly. How about if they were to just train together? Would that work? Which would be more likely to get accidentally injured?
 

That is exactly the situation women in Jiu-Jitsu face every day.
 

Take Madeline or Coco, our two female Blue Belts. Both are much faster and more skilled than I am, and yet I'm often able to bull my way through a poorly executed technique to make it work. Often they execute something on me perfectly, and due to size I can keep it from being effective.
 

They press down on me with all their weight, and it's no big deal. I press down on them under control, and they can't breath.
 

Put Madeline with our biggest guys and she's literally facing over double her body weight, and over a foot of height.
 

It makes Demetrious Johnson versus Cain Velasquez seem fair in comparison.
 

But of course, not all women are that small. We have one who is about my height. I only out weigh her by 40 or 50 pounds. She still is at a disadvantage.
 

Sometimes people wonder out loud why there are so few women in Jiu-Jitsu. About one third of our class is currently female, as is the high school club.

I find it surprising there are actually so many.