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"What's hard with female MMA isn't the training or the fighting", says Dave O'Donnell, aka. Cage Rage Dave, a promoter who first pointed me in the direction of Lisa and Stacy, "It's finding opponents – they just don't have that many to choose from". Up until 2013 the Ultimate Fighting Championships did not allow female fighters to participate, meaning that they had to look to led prestigious promoters to fight. This created a glass ceiling for women that not even the best were able to smash through, and though the rules have now changed there's a long way to go before the female division matches the men's in terms of popularity and profits.
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Lisa was announced the winner but the fight was apparently not over yet. As Stacy stepped out the ring I could see Lisa's mum and aunt approach her and some kind of altercation took place. Stacy spat at Lisa's family and security had to step in.I emailed Stacy a couple of days after to find out what happened. "They attacked me," she wrote back. "They were rowdy at the weigh in too, and then they attacked me as I was getting out of the cage and said they were going to get me outside." She goes on, "UCMMA rules state no contest for that behaviour but nothing's been done except they've been banned from UCMMA and Lisa is not allowed to fight on the next show."I called Dave to confirm all this and could tell he was pissed off at how it had all ended. "It just puts a bad feeling over the whole event, you know," he said, sighing. "They didn't attack Stacy but they were shouting verbal abuse at her. It was just fucking pig-headed really. It's a shame but it's what drink does. Of course you get riled up, it happens." So has he banned the "Lights Out" brigade? "Lisa's not banned but the mum and aunt are banned for two events. If it puts people at risk around the cage, you can't be having it."
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