The UFC’s new uniform deal with Reebok continues to draw attention for all the wrong reasons. This time, it’s over the women’s uniforms and their ability to keep everything in the right place.
Saturday night was UFC on Fox 16 headlined by T.J. Dillashaw vs. Renan Barao for the Bantamweight Championship. But the headlines dominating the internet afterwards have mostly gone to a preliminary fight between Elizabeth Phillips and Ronda Rousey’s teammate Jessamyn Duke. Early into the fight, a scramble between Duke and Phillips against the cage resulted in Phillips’ top being pulled down and to the side. And then, at the end of the fight, Duke’s attempts to secure an armbar on Phillips resulted in Phillips’ uniform top pulling up, exposing her breast again.
What’s worse, the second incident was actually replayed at the end of the fight in slow motion. UFC has since edited the footage, changing the camera angle used so you can’t see anything. Fortunately, the wardrobe malfunction occurred during preliminary fights streaming on UFC.tv and not during the Fox portion of the card, so it wasn’t widely seen on national television.
Still, one of the often repeated slogans from Reebok about the new uniforms was that women would no longer have to double up on sports bras, to ensure their breasts wouldn’t pop out during fights. Just five events into the Reebok uniform era, we have our first wardrobe malfunction. Perhaps they should allow female fighters to wear a full shirt version of the uniform until they manage to get their sports bras properly calibrated for mixed martial arts?
Wardrobe malfunctions aren’t something new to the world of cage fighting. Many of the women in UFC rose up from the ranks of Invicta Fighting Championships, where Leslie Smith’s top was pulled up during a tussle with TUF veteran Raquel Pennington. Smith didn’t let modesty get in the way and kept throwing punches until the end of the round. And Ronda Rousey wasn’t happy with the design of the UFC brand sports bra she wore during her defense against Liz Carmouche. At one point, Carmouche had her back and was working for a rear naked choke, pulling the bra all over. According to Rousey, she was “perilously close” to showing everyone her nipples.