In 2011, Dana White, the president of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, said women would never fight in the promotion. He had seen a women’s fight in Northern California that was poorly matched, and the loser suffered a bashing.
“Television wasn’t ready for that,” White said recently in an interview. “I was still trying to get people to accept guys fighting in a cage, let alone women.”
It’s a measure of how much has changed that a rematch of Julianna Peña and Amanda Nunes will be the main event at U.F.C. 277 on Saturday night in Dallas. They are not just champion fighters and major stars in mixed martial arts.