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Gina Carano and "Cyborg" Santos will engage in the first ever female title fight for a major MMA promotion. If that historical achievement wasn't enough they will also be the first female fighters to headline a card as the main event. 

It is widely agreed that Gina Carano is the current face of female MMA. Many, including me, would cite her looks as the reason why she has become a prominent figure. But looks mean absolutely dick in a fight,

Except, one little thing. Carano and Cyborg's looks have absolutely nothing to do with the outcome of the fight. Carano's pretty face will not keep Cyborg from trying to punch it as hard as possible. Cyborg's less-than-supermodel-like looks will not scare Carano out of the cage.

Maggie Hendricks is right, looks have nothing to do with the quality of fighter. But looks are tremendously important when it comes to selling a female athlete (it sucks but it is the truth, listen to our podcast to hear more about this topic). The sad reality is that a majority of sports consumers are men and unfortunately we gravitate to good looking women. On the flip side there are female sports clubs that gravitate to attractive men, the Washington Capitals have one and NBA teams regularly sign Wally Szczerbiak due to his unique fanbase.

Now, I don't think anyone would disagree that a big part of Carano's appeal is that she is good looking. Sports observers have witnessed the same trend with Maria Sharapova, Anna Kournikova and Danica Patrick. When it comes to being a successful mainstream female athlete good looks are an important factor. However, out of the three female athletes I just mentioned only one is truly successful at her sport, Maria Sharapova. 

The fact that Patrick and Kournikova achieved fame without winning major events is proof positive that looks are important. While many would say that this is objectifying (I would agree with that statement) body image it is important for male athletes as well. Take "The Boz" for instance. Brian Bosworth built a wonderful reputation in college. He sold himself as a mean, bad-ass linebacker and looked the part too. The only problem was, he wasn't very good. That didn't stop the Seahawks from drafting him and signing him to the biggest rookie contract in NFL history, at the time anyway. While Bosworth only played 24 games with 4 sacks and one steamrolling by Bo Jackson, he achieved a level of fame due to his image. 

For those of you who aren't that old or don't like football let's take some more contemporary examples. How many times have you read or heard that Chuck Liddell "looks" like an ultimate fighter as justification for why someone likes him. How about J.J. Redick's gelled to perfection hair before a game in the NBA finals or Chad Johnson's gold teeth and blond mohawk. The fact is that male athlete imagery is just as important as it is for female athletes as it helps to establish their brand. The same could be said of Gina Carano's image. After all, she picked the name "Crush" for American Gladiators because America has a crush on Gina for her "girl next door" looks. 

Personally I love female MMA and am extremely excited about its growth and its future. The fact that MMA fans have widely embraced female MMA as legitimate athletic competition and watch it puts our community light-years ahead of basketball fans, lacrosse fans, football fans and baseball fans. Yet that doesn't change the unfortunate reality that looks are important for female athletes.