Like Sasha Banks, Megan Anderson deserves better

UFC Featherweight contender Megan Anderson is set for the fight of her life in the early part of 2021. She’s all set to challenge Amanda Nunes – the consensus greatest female fighter in MMA history – for the UFC Featherweight title at UFC 259 in March.

Unfortunately, events of the last couple of days have shown that Megan Anderson has another fight on her hands, one against the shameful spectre of sexism.

It was reported that Megan Anderson’s fellow UFC fighter, Bantamweight Casey Kenney, had made offensive, sexually degrading remarks about the Australian while making a guest appearance on the ‘Timbo Sugarshow’ podcast.

When alerted to the same, Megan Anderson responded angrily, indicating disgust that Kenney is set to fight on the same UFC card as her in March.

I guess MMA is a line of work where you can publicly talk about whether you'd have sex with a coworker in an utterly degrading way and face zero consequences.Disgusting behavior and it's unfortunate that he'll be fighting on my card in March. https://t.co/hJd1OuHIyD

— Megan Anderson (@MeganA_mma) January 28, 2021

Kenney has since apologised to Megan Anderson profusely, stating the following:

“I’m sorry this upset you. I will be more careful with my words. I was just answering a question and thought it was all a joking matter. I see I was wrong, and I’m sorry. Best of luck with training camp and your fight.”

However, should Megan Anderson and the UFC accept such an apology? It’s definitely worth questioning.

Is this the first instance of outright sexism in UFC history?

Female fighters have now been competing in the UFC for eight years

2021 will mark the eighth anniversary of the UFC instituting its first female division – Women’s Bantamweight – and a further three female weight divisions have been added since then.

During this period, it’d be impossible not to give the UFC credit for the way they have promoted their female athletes.

Not only did the promotion push Ronda Rousey as a mega-star – to the point that she largely transcended MMA – but they’ve also been happy to headline major pay-per-view cards with female fighters, from Amanda Nunes and Miesha Tate to Cris Cyborg and Holly Holm.

Perhaps the most positive aspect of the UFC’s promotion of its female athletes is that they’ve never been treated any differently from their male counterparts.

Megan Anderson, for instance, came into the UFC in 2018. She debuted on the main card of UFC 225 in a loss against former UFC Bantamweight champion Holly Holm. She has fought four times since - twice on the preliminary card of a UFC pay-per-view and twice on the main card of a UFC Fight Night.

Megan Anderson's last fight came in February 2020, where she knocked out Norma Dumont in the first round.

At no stage has the UFC treated Megan Anderson any differently to a debuting male fighter, and the promotion and its commentators have certainly never made any sexist remarks aimed at her.

In that sense, it’s definitely fair to argue that Kenney’s remarks are the first instance of outright sexism in the UFC.

Can any parallels be drawn between Megan Anderson and WWE’s Sasha Banks?

AEW star Sammy Guevara found himself in hot water when he made sexually degrading comments about WWE's Sasha Banks

Perhaps the closest parallel to the Megan Anderson/Casey Kenney incident took place in the world of pro-wrestling in 2020.

June 22nd saw pro wrestler Sammy Guevara suspended by his promotion – AEW – after it was revealed he had made similar sexually degrading comments to those made by Kenney on a podcast.

Guevara immediately apologised. But he was still forced to sit out for a month and attend sensitivity training, while his weekly pay was donated to a Florida charity dealing with rape recovery.

Unfortunately though, that’s largely where the parallel ends.

Over the past few years, female pro-wrestlers have begun to be treated with more respect – WWE has headlined both its Royal Rumble and Wrestlemania events with women’s matches in recent years – but sadly, the pseudo-sport still has a long history of degrading its female athletes.

Guevara’s comments did come at a time when pro-wrestling is attempting to clean up its act, so to speak, but rewind a decade, and they’d likely have been par for the course.

Does an athlete like Sasha Banks deserve better treatment? Absolutely. But thankfully, Guevara’s promotion clearly recognised that and dealt with the matter quickly and professionally.

Can we expect the UFC to deal with this incident?

UFC President Dana White has yet to comment on the incident.

It remains to be seen whether the UFC will deal with this incident in a similar manner.

The MMAJunkie report, which broke the news of the incident, suggested that the UFC have not immediately responded, but it’s possible they are waiting for the full details to come to light.

It’s absolutely clear, though, that an athlete like Megan Anderson deserves better treatment than this. Sure, Anderson is attractive, but that certainly doesn’t give the right for a fellow athlete like Kenney to make degrading remarks about her in the public domain.

And more to the point, if the UFC don’t deal with this, it could set a dangerous precedent. Ever since female fighters were added to their roster, the UFC has always prided itself on being a promotion that treats everyone equally.

Athletes like Megan Anderson have always been promoted in a respectful, professional manner and have never been spoken about by the promotion or its male fighters in such degrading fashion.

In fact, fighters like Rousey, Paige VanZant and Michelle Waterson were never spoken about in such a manner despite modelling for various publications, including Sports Illustrated’s famous bikini edition.

So what should the UFC do?

Megan Anderson is the first UFC fighter to be spoken about in a degrading way by a fellow UFC star.

Judging by AEW’s response to Sammy Guevara’s similar comments, perhaps the best course of action for the UFC to take would be to suspend Kenney and remove him from UFC 259.

However, there’s a slight problem with that. The UFC is obliged to offer Kenney a certain number of fights, and doesn’t tend to suspend its fighters unless they’ve tested positive for PEDs.

And more to the point, would a suspension and a fine really suffice? It did for Guevara, but then again, pro-wrestling clearly has its own issues to deal with, thanks to its long history of sexism and misogyny.

MMA and the UFC, on the other hand, have never had to deal with an incident quite like this before. Megan Anderson likely isn’t the first female fighter to be spoken about in a sexually degrading way, but she is the first to be spoken about in such a manner by a fellow UFC fighter.

And with that in mind, the UFC should probably take the correct course of action and release Kenney from his contract with the promotion.

Put simply, Megan Anderson is a serious fighter who is about to fight for a UFC title. She deserves much better than to be spoken about in such a manner.