From a purely practical point of view, the purpose of martial arts is to develop skills so that you can defend yourself ably against a larger, stronger, faster aggressor. There is a name for being able to defeat someone smaller, weaker, and slower – bullying.
One of the most telling occurrences in martial arts is when a woman can defeat a man in combat, because given equal size, in the vast majority of cases, men are stronger and faster than women. Thus, women competing with men evenly is an expression of martial arts working properly, even beautifully.
However, it characteristically engenders a number of unfortunate reactions from some men. Lesser men feel challenged, call the fight fake, say they would have done better, insult the woman, etc. But a woman beating a man shows great teaching, in a great art.
Marsey Fight Club is located in Dmitrov, Russia, about 40 miles north of Moscow. It is run by coach Akhmed Rustamov. They held an in-gym MMA event on Saturday. A formal smoker basically. If you can read Cyrillic, there is information on Russia’s dominant social network, VK.
The fourth fight of the night featured Anzhelika Stepanenko.
Stepanenko fought a young man who appears to be around her age. Both fight hard, and through superior technique, Anzhelika got the decision.
This is all good, and shows that with an excellent coach and an excellent style, martial arts works. If fact, if even with an excellent coach a woman has no chance of defeating a man, then the martial art is not excellent at all.
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