A former UFC star has claimed the promotion’s run with women’s MMA is simply not what it used to be, criticizing a serious drop in the quality of fights on any card.
The critic in question, Matt Brown, called time on his career back in 2023, following a storied career in the Octagon. However, the Ohio native has been vocal this week regarding what he thinks is an apparent limbo for female mixed martial arts.
His comments, however, come ahead of UFC 315 — featuring a prominent title showcase. Set to take co-main event honors, flyweight queen Valentina Shevchenko returns in a showdown opposite surging French contender Manon Fiorot.
But boldly, according to Brown, female combatants cannot be held to the same regard as their male counterparts in the same promotion. Claiming that while some fights bring the excitement, as far as he’s concerned, more often than not, it’s not worth viewing.
“I think it was like a little bit of a honeymoon thing,” Brown said on The Fighter vs. the Writer. “When women’s MMA first came in, everybody was so excited about it. Most of the volume of fans are more unknowledgeable people. Like your average person sitting around on Saturday night watching a main event,” he noted.
“But then as they get more into it… I’m not trying to hate on women’s MMA. They’re great for what they are, but you can’t compare them to male MMA,” he added condescendingly, adding that once said honeymoon period eore off, people realized that the fights just aren’t that great.
Matt Brown argues ‘honeymoon’ is over for women’s MMA in UFC: ‘I don’t find the fights nearly as exciting’ https://t.co/zRuOSWSOwY
— MMA Fighting (@MMAFighting) May 8, 2025
While the opinion does border on sexism, with the likes of Ronda Rousey, Holly Holm, Cris Cyborg, and Amanda Nunes departing the UFC in recent years, many seem to share the same viewpoint as Brown.
However, notably, the lack of prominent superstars in the promotion is not a problem unique to the women’s roster.
As two-time Olympic gold medallist Kayla Harrison makes her first attempt at UFC gold against Julianna Pena at UFC 316, the promotion will hope to find a semblance of a solution in the fight.
The UFC also hosts Valentina Shevchenko and Zhang Weili as champions, who have delivered on the promise of exciting fights more often than not.
However, it should be noted that neither of these fighters has main-evented a PPV in some time. In fact, the last time a women’s fight headlined a pay-per-view, it was between Nunes and Irena Aldana at UFC 289, almost two years ago.
So Brown’s concerns about the quality of women’s MMA in UFC are justified. However, the former welterweight fighter also believes that women just aren’t as good as men inside an octagon.
“I don’t know how to say it politically correct way, but women are just not as good as fighters as men… I don’t know if that’s a controversial thing to say,” he added.
Interestingly, before Rousey grabbed the brass ring and went to town with it, UFC boss Dana White also used to share Brown’s opinion.
White initially refused female entry to Octagon
Famously telling TMZ back in the day about how women would never be seen fighting in the octagon, White had to take back his words as Rousey became the promotion’s first global superstar.
Inking then-Strikeforce queen, Rousey, to a multi-fight deal as part of the merger literally propelled the promotion into the mainstream.
Headlining UFC 157 in the first female bout in the promotion, Rousey would defend her crown against Liz Carmouche, turning in another patented armbar finish. This would immediately nabbed her all the headlines.
“Once we were in that arena and she (Ronda) walked out. Sold-out [arena] and the place just erupted when she walked out. I was like, ‘Yeah, this needed to be done,‘” he is reported to have said.
Hopefully, the UFC can invest more in recruitment and finding young, exciting talents to feature in the octagon. You never know where the next Ronda Rousey comes from.
