Women's MMA has a wide range of apparel that seems to be allowed. You see girls fighting in jersey style shirts and board shorts to shorts that barely cover their butt cheeks and small sports bras, and everything in between! It's interesting to see the variety and creativity that goes into everyone's outfits but I've got to wonder how they decide sometimes. Men's MMA has pretty strict rules about what's allowed, board shorts or vale tudo shorts. Wrestling "shorts" were allowed... until the Dennis Hallman fiasco.
Now, some people are probably going to be insulted by the rest of this post, if you are one of the girls who wears very little to fight, you probably don't want to read anymore haha. You'll probably call me a prude and be all "I can wear whatever I want that I'm comfortable fighting in" and that's fine.
Now, at Invicta, there was 3 wardrobe malfunctions. There was ass crack, a thong, and a nipslip. Two of those in one fight! From the same fighter! You would think that wearing leggings to fight in would be fairly safe, but they seemed to be a bit loose or something b/c they rode a little low and we saw a bit of bum. Leslie's sports bra also had some trouble, I don't think anything got on camera, but the people in the live show definitely saw more than they expected! The thong incident belongs to Alexis, her fight shorts seemed to have a similar problem as Leslie's and we all got a peek at her lovely black thong, I suppose it's good she was wearing something underneath!
So, why do these kinds of things happen? Do the fighters not get their fight outfits until a few hours before the fight or something? I guess with having to get sponsors printed and everything they don't get to test them out, but man, I would be talking with my providers after malfunctions like that!
So what is the ideal outfit for fighting? It’s one which allows the fighters to have proper mobility and not be restricted by their outfits and also show off their ridiculously sculpted bodies - which they have every right to, they work their asses off and they should be flaunting it.
Shayna's outfit allowed for a lot of movement and didn't move at all. No idea what's different from her shorts and Alexis and Leslies. Her sports bra/top definitely had more coverage then a lot of other fighters and was tight enough to stay in place, but didn't seem to cause any restrictions or anything either. Seems like the best of both worlds.
When I was fighting MMA, I wore compression shorts, with board shorts over top on the bottom and 2 sports bras and a long sleeve rashguard on top. Paranoid much? Big time. I would be mortified if I had a wardrobe malfunction, but I guess that's just me.
The same thing happens, to a lesser extent, in BJJ. Lots of girls wear just a sports bra under their gi, and I got to say, I'm a little jealous of their confidence! Like in MMA, I wear compression shorts under my gi pants, and a sports bra and long sleeve(or sometimes short sleeve) rashguard under my gi. Funny thing, did you know in the IBJJF rules it specifies that thongs aren't allowed to be worn under gi pants. I assume they mean as the only thing under your pants, but it's still funny. It's also funny that this rule is only for the women. I guess they haven't had to specify it for the men yet. No commando allowed either.
I do see the appeal of wearing a thong, you know you’re going to get wedgies doing jiu jitsu (and MMA) so why not make it as little fabric as possible? No one likes a big ol’ wedgie. I find some pairs of shorts, and underwear, cause wedgies a lot worse than others. I haven't quite figured out what the cause is, but I know some of my shorts never ride up, and some do. I wish I could keep them straight.
I did get a sweet pair of capris the other day from Tussle that I'm looking forward to rocking for nogi jiu jitsu. I'm going to be wearing a pair of shorts underneath them though, b/c they are a tad to big and I think if I’m shrimping and stuff they might scrunch down and make me moon everyone!!
For the tops, I don't find wearing a rashguard under my gi to be restricting at all, I like the moisture wicking abilities it provides, and also, the more of my skin that's covered, the less chance of catching something nasty off of the mats.
This all reminds me... where do you girls find good sports bras? I have a hellova time finding decent ones. Tee pointed me to under armors $70 ones, and I’ve got to say, the fact that they have cup and band sizes instead of just small medium large is a big selling point. Just because I've got a medium size rib cage doesn't mean I've got big boobs!!
So, what do you wear? Is there anyone out there as paranoid as I am????
