Female MMA fighter from South Korea on how she beat gender discrimination in and out of the ring
- Early in her career, Song Ka-yeon, 26, was a ‘ring girl’, employed to look pretty and hold up round cards during bouts, despite years of hard work and training
- She finally joined the professional ranks as the ‘Deadly Beauty’ in 2014 and today works in Singapore with female MMA fighters who face the same issues
Women are no strangers to discrimination in the workplace – even if it’s an octagonal mixed martial arts cage. One woman who can attest to that is professional MMA fighter and trainer Song Ka-yeon, who has been on the receiving end of sexism since she was a teenager in the sport.
“I always get tired of people asking me why I want to pursue an MMA career because I’m a girl,” says the 26-year-old South Korean native, whose ring name is “Deadly Beauty”.
“When I was in high school, when I started my MMA career, so many people questioned my choice. The first time I told my friends and family I was going to be a professional fighter, no one supported me.”
Song – who stands 1.59 metres (5 feet 2 inches) tall – won her debut MMA bout in 2014 when she trounced Japanese fighter Emi Sato with a first-round technical knockout. At the time, she was one of few women in the sport, and one of the youngest to be competing professionally.
Despite her accomplishment, Song was dismissed as just a pretty face. She was called “ring girl”, not for her prowess in the octagon but because she was first employed in MMA to hold up round cards during bouts. For Song, this seemed like an attempt to invalidate all her years of training and hard work.