ESPN The Magazine released its “Body Issue” this week, which features numerous athletes posing nude. Female MMA fighter Miesha Tate was one of the athletes who posed for the magazine, following the lead of nemesis Ronda Rousey, who posed the previous year. In a companion piece for the Body Issue, Amanda Hess wrote an interesting article about how breasts impact female athletes.
[Photos: Miesha Tate poses nude in Body Issue]
Hess says a typical A-cup boob weighs 0.43 pounds, and that a woman with D-cup breasts could be carrying around four extra pounds compared to someone with smaller breasts. The extra weight can cause neck and back pain, among other problems. Some female athletes get breast reductions to reduce the interference caused by their chest.
For the article, Rousey described the difficulties of fighting and grappling in the octagon while worrying about keeping her breasts covered. She had a particularly tough time concealing her breasts while struggling with Liz Carmouche in her last fight because of a wardrobe issue. Rousey also offered some pretty interesting quotes on the matter, specifically saying that large breasts are not very common among elite female athletes.
“Gina Carano was an amazing fighter, and she had a fantastic rack,” Rousey told ESPNW, but “You don’t see big titties in the Olympics, and I think that’s for a reason.”
Carano, 31, went 12-1-1 in her Muay Thai career, and 7-1 in MMA. Carano lost to Cyborg Santos in 2009 for her lone MMA loss and has not returned to the cage since. Instead, she has pursued an acting career and has acted in movies like “Fast & Furious 6” and “Haywire.”
Carano became extremely popular because of a combination of her good looks and excellent fighting abilities. Rousey has taken over her spot as the face of women’s MMA.
Rousey’s point about not seeing many large-breasted women in the Olympics is probably accurate. Elite athletes who are curvy like Carano or Serena Williams seem to be rare.
H/T Bloody Elbow
