Can a woman beat a man in a fight?
Well, there would be many variables in play but the simple answer is yes, a woman can certainly beat a man in a fight - but not without some serious skill and practice.
Typically, women are a lot smaller and weaker than men, here is the size difference between men and women.
On average, men are around 5 inches taller and 21% heavier than women. However, the even bigger advantage to men is their testosterone-fueled muscular strength in the upper body. This same hormone also gives them their aggressive nature - which is normally an advantage in a fight* [see below for more].
You see the difference is simply huge.
But don’t feel discouraged just yet.
Women are beaten by men and vice versa for ages unknown. There are many documented cases of it, like MMA fighter Polyana Viana subduing a mugger. You can even find countless videos of women beating men on YouTube. Some of them are intense and very real.
The size difference does not mean a woman cannot defeat a man in a fight. Even though size and strength are big advantages, skills, strategy, and conditioning matter even more.
Skill-beating size is often seen in the heavyweight division of UFC. Here, many times, smaller fighters pick apart much bigger ones.
Cain Velasquez vs. Brock Lesnar was such a fight. Here brock was 20 lb. (10 kg) heavier and two inches taller, yet Cain subdued him with superior skills (though if Brock had not gotten exhausted so early, the fight would be gone on to end in later rounds).
Stipe Miocic vs. Francis Ngannou is another such fight. Francis was 20 lb. heavier going into the fight and had the distinction of being one of the hardest hitters in the history of UFC, yet Stipe completely manhandled him with superior skills only.
Daniel Cormier vs. Antonio "Bigfoot" Silva another such interesting fight. Here Silva was 6 inches taller and about 16 lb. (8 kg) heavier and also had a reach advantage of 11.5 inches over Daniel.
Yet, Daniel took him apart by darting in and out of his punches, hitting him exactly at the right places at the exactly right time, and being lighter on his feet.
Though, the biggest example of fights like this would be Mark Hunt and Stefan Struve. Stefan Struve was more than a foot taller than Mark Hunt, yet Hunt knocked him out rather easily. Though they were both the same weight in this fight.
This tells us that height does not matter as much as weight in a fight. Good thing too, because you cannot gain height but you can always gain weight - muscle or fat.
So you see a woman or smaller person can beat a much bigger opponent through strategy, and skills conditioning even though they are at a huge size disadvantage.
So, that brings us to the question, what are skill, strategy, and conditioning? The things needed to defeat bigger opponents.
Skill is the art of fighting. It is akin to your arsenal in a war.
How to throw a punch, where to punch, and when to punch or kick. How to dodge a punch or kick, and how to perform a takedown (it doesn’t matter how tall is your opponent, once they are down they are all same height) are some of the skills needed to learn how to fight.
Strategy is spotting some weakness in your opponent and taking advantage of it.
Like in Daniel Cormier vs. Stipe Miocic. Daniel and his team had studied how Stipe fights and spotted how he always leaves his hands down coming out of a cinch. Daniel practiced for just this.
In the fight, Stipe did just as he always does, he let his hands down coming out of the cinch. Daniel punched him hard on the chin and Stipe lost.
Conditioning is making your body ready to fight. You can watch all the fight moves and learn them by heart but that will not mean you will be able to perform them in real life. You will have to practice these moves hundred and thousands of times and do some strength training so you will be lighter on your feet, and have some force behind your moves. With enough practice, you will also develop muscle memory and reflexes for a fight and will not get tired easily.
As we are wrapping up, we would like to remind you that Bruce Lee was only 5’7.5” and weighed around 130 lb., (that’s 5 lb lighter than what Ronda Rousey weighed in UFC) but he was as dangerous as any human being can get. Here is one of his quotes, you’ll find inspiring:
I fear not the man who has practiced 10,000 kicks once, but I fear the man who has practiced one kick 10,000 times.
* Being aggressive and angry often makes you less rational - which is a must not in a fight.
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