Stephen A. Smith has a habit of shooting himself in the foot, much like his previous comments about Floyd Mayweather avoiding Manny Pacquiao.
In 2014, Smith stated that if ‘Floyd Mayweather doesn’t fight Manny Pacquiao next, it’s clear he’s avoiding him’ on ESPN.
Mayweather duly fought Pacquiao in his next bout and gave Smith a dressing down in an exclusive interview.
Fast forward to 2021, and Smith recently put himself in the firing line when speaking out regarding women fighters.
Specifically targeting MMA stars on the female side, the commentator ended up offending boxers into the bargain.
But what did Stephen A. Smith say about women fighters?
He said: “First of all, I love it. I think there’s an awful lot of women who are incredibly qualified to do the jobs they’re doing.”
“Where I jump off the bandwagon is where they try to engage physically.
“For example, I don’t ever want to see a woman boxing a man. I don’t want to see that. I don’t want to see a woman in the UFC fighting a man – even though there are some women out there that will kick the dude’s butt.
“When I think about pugilistic sports, I don’t like to see women involved in that at all. I don’t it.
“I wouldn’t pass, I wouldn’t promote legislating laws to prohibit them from doing so. But I don’t want to see women punching each other in the face.
“I don’t want to see women fighting in the octagon and stuff like that. That’s just me.”
“I certainly, what I adamantly would be against is them fighting men. I don’t think that’s cool. I’m not a proponent of that.
“Plus, you don’t ever want to give men a license to believe that it’s all right to be physical with a woman, to be quite honest with you. You don’t want to do that.”
FLOYD MAYWEATHER
Much like his rant on Mayweather, there aren’t many who take anything Smith says literally. After all, his lack of sporting knowledge is there for all to see.
Smith is quickly becoming a laughing stock when he attempts an opinion on most things in sport, especially when he takes a position trying to describe boxing action.
Those ear-cringing commentating days are hopefully far behind him and not just because of his comments regarding Mayweather.
The views expressed in this article are the opinions of Phil Jay.
WBN Editor Phil has over ten years of boxing news experience. Furthermore, follow WBN on Twitter @WorldBoxingNews.
