World Grappling Champion Sheila Bird Weighs in on Inter-Gender Matches

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One of the major stories Women Talk Sports have been covering these past few weeks has been about Iowa high school wrestler Cassy Herkelman, who won a match by default, because her opponent, Joel Northrup, refused to face her because of his religious beliefs.

This situation isn’t a new one in the world of grappling. Several female grapplers, who compete in submission or jiu-jitsu style tournaments, have also been given the option of competing in the guys divisions due to lack of opponents. Something that FILA World Champion Sheila Bird is familiar with.

Bird is one of the best grapplers in the sport, and has won titles all over the world, including Gold at the World Combat Games this past August in Bejing, China. Early in her career, the Candian grappler found herself in similar circumstances as Herkelman, as she explained in her interview on the Women Talk Sports podcast this week.

“There are some videos of me online beating guys,” Bird admitted. “I am sure they hate the videos being up there.”

Bird’s current record against male grapplers is 12-6-5, but hasn’t faced them as the sport has expanded over the years. She does see both sides of the story.

“It’s unfortunate that there is two sides to the story,” Bird expressed. “There is the female side, where we just want to compete. Why should it matter if I am in a guy’s or girl’s division?”

“From a guy’s prospective; they don’t want to compete with girls. It's a no win for them. If they beat you, they beat a girl, and if they lose, it isn’t good for their ego.”

Teaching the next generation of fighters, Bird has wants to help the sport progress so this happens less over time. However, she leaves it in the hands of her students to make up their own minds.

“I don’t tell girls not to compete against guys. I let them make the decision on their own. As long as they know what they are getting into, they can make their own decisions.”

Sheila Bird will be making her pro MMA debut this Friday at the Unified MMA 7 event in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.

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This post is related to an event on our Calendar:

• Unified MMA 7 - Edmonton, AB

This post is related to an ongoing story:

• High School Wrestler Declines to Face a Girl at State Meet

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There is 1 comment on this post. Join the discussion!

NiamhG says:

This is a sad comment on how few women do take part in contact martial arts.Although I do agree with the statement above re it being a "no-win" situation for men. To me it doesn't prove much for a woman to beat a guy either, it should be about the sport and improving yourself. Umm, being from Ireland I missed why exactly his religious beliefs would be a problem? What religion mandates against mixed-gender MMA?

Monday, March 7, 2011 at 9:24am EST

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