Should a woman be eligible to be included in the monthly Yahoo! Sports pound-for-pound rankings? MMA reporter Dave Deibert of Post Media in Canada pushed the issue to the forefront when he included Strikeforce bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey ninth on his Top 10 list.

The rankings are the result of the vote of 20 or so MMA journalists, who are asked to vote for who they feel are the 10 best fighters in the world. The only restrictions they’re given are that they can’t vote for a fighter who hasn’t competed in a year, nor can they vote for someone who is on suspension. UFC welterweight champion Georges St. Pierre isn’t ranked and bantamweight champion Dominick Cruz will be ineligible next month, because of inactivity. Overeem and UFC welterweight Nick Diaz are both on suspension so are ineligible.

Upon receiving Deibert’s vote for Rousey, I emailed the panel and asked their views on including Rousey, or any other woman, in what heretofore has been an exclusively male Top 10. The issue is beyond whether or not Rousey deserves to be in the Top 10, but rather whether she should even be eligible for it.

The simple solution would be to create a separate women’s poll, as is done in college basketball. The problem that would arise is that the majority of voters don’t see enough female fights to make a valid assessment of their relative abilities. The women who fight regularly on television – largely Rousey, Miesha Tate and Sarah Kaufman – would have a massive advantage over the rest of the field.

Hopefully, that time will come when the women’s version of the sport is as ubiquitous as the men’s, but it hasn’t arrived yet.

Of those who responded to my query, a strong majority were for Rousey’s inclusion.

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