MMA promoter reveals reason behind hesitance about including female athletes and the Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar-esque fight that changed bias

Forrest Griffin and Stephan Bonnar was a groundbreaking moment for the sport of mixed martial arts with one of the most influential figures in women's MMA citing what she sees as WMMA's Griffin vs. Bonnar moment. Appearing on a recent episode of Bowks Talking Bouts, Invicta FC figurehead Shannon Knapp discussed several subjects regarding the future of the all-women's MMA promotion.

Knapp also discussed some of her major career highlights in the sport. One of those big moments came during her time working for Strikeforce. When offering up her insights on why Cris Cyborg vs. Gina Carano comes to mind when presented in this Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar context, Knapp said:

"That is actually the very one I would talk about that changed because there has to be a point in my career where the perception changes about females competing. I'm old school. I've been doing this a really long time."

"So when I kind of came up on the male side of the sport and I can remember promoters coming to me or the people I'm working for at the time and wanting to do a female bout. But they weren't asking me to find the best of the best like they would do on the male side... It was more about the way the athlete looks."

Knapp also mentioned during the interview that Cyborg vs. Carano was so inspiring that it was the catalyst for her eventually starting Invicta FC. This was a pretty far cry from the initial perceptions of women in the sport as Knapp quipped:

"I can remember saying to a couple of them it's like no, you're not taking a spot away from my male athletes... But when I did work at Strikeforce and I had the opportunity to watch athletes like Cris Cyborg, Gina Carano, Marloes Coenen, those type of athletes. Even Miesha Tate, you know, she's a little bit younger in that group but it really opened my eyes."

Check out Knapp discussing the Forrest Griffin-Stephan Bonnar moment below (14:19):

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Forrest Griffin's place in MMA when Cyborg vs. Carano took place

Forrest Griffin interestingly enough competed inside the octagon just one week before Cris Cyborg vs. Gina Carano took place on Aug.15, 2009. Unfortunately for Griffin, this was when he suffered one of his more devastating professional setbacks.

The Ohio native was on the heels of losing his light heavyweight belt to Rashad Evans and was looking to get back to winning ways. However, Griffin was stopped with strikes by Anderson Silva in a lopsided loss at UFC 101.

The now-45-year-old would then go on to defeat Tito Ortiz in November of that same year to get back to the win column. Griffin closed out his campaign for the calendar year in that rematch with Ortiz that transpired at UFC 106.