The World Series of Fighting announced this morning they have signed top ranked 115lb female fighter Jessica Aguilar and she will debut in January. That would be great if the WSOF was getting serious about women's MMA and were starting a full 115lb division. But they aren't doing that. WSOF executive vice president Ali Abdel-Aziz said they are not establishing women's divisions but would put on occasional "intriguing fights". Does that remind you of anything? It should remind Jessica after she sat around for a year waiting for a fight while under Bellator contract. It's not that potential opponents wouldn't fight Jessica. They didn't think Bellator was committed to promoting women's MMA and there was no reason for them to fight there. Bellator proved that correct when they dropped women's MMA a few months ago. This is exactly the same problem. The UFC has made that commitment to a 135lb weight division. Unless the WSOF makes that same commitment to a women's MMA weight division, it's a dead end street for any female fighter. There's no structure leading to a title. Occasional intriguing fights doesn't cut it. Why any female fighter would sign with WSOF instead of Invicta or the XFC knowing that WSOF has no plans to formally support structured women's MMA divisions while Invicta and the XFC both have that structure in place is a real head scratcher. Maybe WSOF is paying her more than Invicta. Though that makes sense, there's more to the MMA business than money.
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