Before I get into the meat and ‘taters of my reasoning behind this article, I would first like to congratulate UFC champion Ronda Rousey for her Best Fighter win at last weeks ESPY Awards. Rousey has been thoroughly dominant in the UFC to the point of making many of her fights look easy. It takes dedication, focus and a drive to constantly improve to achieve what Rousey has achieved, so my hat off to her for a thoroughly deserved victory.
It is in part the ESPY awards, and in part this article I read on Yahoo News that leaves me scratching my head about a level of hypocrisy from Rousey that I find tough to understand.
After beating Boxing’s Pound-For-Pound kingpin Floyd Mayweather to the best fighter award, Rousey said “I wonder how Floyd Mayweather feels being beaten by a woman for once” in an unveiled jab at Mayweather’s conviction, and subsequent jail time, for domestic violence back in 2012.
Fair play to Rousey for speaking her mind on a matter that many feel strongly about. I have no problem with what she said as she is a spokesperson who can exact change and bring awareness to a variety of topics. She has also spoken in the past about the fact that in spite of feeling she can defeat many of her male MMA counterparts in a bout she would not promote or participate in a bout sanctioning a man hitting a woman.
This is what leaves me scratching my head. The article referenced above details the day former Boxing Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson spent at Rousey’s gym watching her prepare for her next title defense. In the article Ronda is reported to have spent several minutes chatting with Tyson, to have left the gym wearing an Iron Mike T-shirt, and quoted saying “It’s very humbling, and I was just honored that he would go through the trouble or go out of his way to watch me train. I’m really glad he was able to come…”
In case anyone reading this is missing the point I’m trying to make I’ll explain now.
Mike Tyson is a convicted rapist, sentenced in 1992 for 10 years (6 incarcerated and 4 suspended) for the rape of an 18-year-old college student – which was just one in a string of accusations against Tyson of aggressive sexual behaviour against women.
Catching Up? Ok. My problem with the whole scenario behind Rousey playing pal with Tyson is the hypocrisy it creates. She has been outspoken about domestic violence, she has vilified Mayweather over his domestic violence yet she makes no mention regarding Tyson’s past history of violence against women.
Given Rousey’s well publicized viewpoint about men committing violent acts against I would have expected her to have a convicted rapist removed from her gym, instead she’s hanging out, chatting and even advertising for him.
Cue the inevitable arguments that Tyson’s conviction was a long time ago, even the arguments that he was falsely convicted, maybe the “everyone deserves a second chance” argument. Sure, all of those can be applied, but if you take that stance from one you have to take it from all.
Tyson argued his innocence, and has maintained since his release from prison that he was innocent. Mayweather has done the same. In matters of belief and feelings about things like domestic violence I don’t feel you can simply pick and choose which offenses warrant verbalization and vilification and that others can be pushed aside once they are over.
sportsdonkey 