To be fair, the UFC began with no weight classes, and only started implementing weight classes as capitulation to the regulatory bodies who were trying to shut them down.
In brief, the sport was being banned and outlawed in various sates for being too dangerous, and in order to attain "legal" status, the UFC negotiated with gaming boards to determine rules. Some of those rules are stupid, some are undoubtedly prudent, but the rules largely exist because without them, the state of Nevada (and others) wouldn't have allowed the UFC to continue.
I don't have any special insight as to whether or not those gaming commissions mandate a separate women's class or not, and the UFC head honcho Dana White had previously stated that he'd never allow women's MMA in the UFC at all, but I suspect that his opinion has been changed by how competitive the women's division actually is.
I honestly couldn't say. Probably. I mean, the guy is a marketeer more than anything else, so it's worth taking his every word with a grain of salt... nevertheless, I think that when he first said it, it would have been hard to get women in the UFC that people would watch. There weren't any stars in the making. Now, there's a 50/50 shot as to what the gender of the best fight will be in any given UFC event. The Waterson/Magana fight was (in my opinion) the fight of the night in the TUF 21 finale.
Whether his change of opinion is sincere or profit motivated isn't any of my concern, but outside of Gina Carano, Cyborg and maybe three other ladies, the state of women's MMA at the time was pretty horrible, but just few years later and it's pretty great.
Yes, the general opinion has changed once it had been realized that women's bouts are not going to lose them million pounds a night.
The UFC earns money from pay-per-view, and if nobody's watching, then nobody's paying, and they either put on a much cheaper production, diluting the brand, or they lose massive amounts of money.
There are plenty of women's sports, and even quite a few women's MMA leagues and productions, so it's not like there had been no opportunities. The UFC were the first ones to be able to sell unstaged women's fights to the general public, and they should be commended for it.
In brief, the sport was being banned and outlawed in various sates for being too dangerous, and in order to attain "legal" status, the UFC negotiated with gaming boards to determine rules. Some of those rules are stupid, some are undoubtedly prudent, but the rules largely exist because without them, the state of Nevada (and others) wouldn't have allowed the UFC to continue.
I don't have any special insight as to whether or not those gaming commissions mandate a separate women's class or not, and the UFC head honcho Dana White had previously stated that he'd never allow women's MMA in the UFC at all, but I suspect that his opinion has been changed by how competitive the women's division actually is.