‘Some women find it empowering to take their clothes off… not me’

Ais 'The Bash' Daly opens up about life in the ring.

Girls With Goals is our inaugural podcast here at Her, and we've kicked things off with a bang. Niamh Maher is joined on the panel this week by blogger turned personal trainer Rosemary MacCabe and comedian and actor Joanne McNally. This week the ladies are tackling online trolls and motherhood with some pretty hilarious outcomes (babies or miniature chihuahua's? 29:43). For our Spotlight on Sport retired Mixed Martial Arts champion Aisling Daly opens up about the struggles she's faced being a woman in the UFC:

"The whole industry bothers me, Mixed Martial Arts is the sport and I love the sport but UFC is a brand and I don't like how they operate, in terms of pay for all their fighters and how they look after their female fighters".

Speaking candidly Aisling said within the UFC there's a lot of pressure on female fighters to look the part; "There's a lot of focus on the ones who are seen to be American beauties... blonde hair, blue eyes, that sort of thing".

 

When all is said and done it's nice to be able to say I was Ireland's first ever MMA world champion. Me and 'The housewives choice' Chris Fields rocking our world title belts in @sbgswords today, it's been a while since I had that bad boy down off the wall ? #SBG #SBGSwords #onetribeonevibe #worldchampions #mma #happy #proud #grateful #naafs #ufc #likeaboss #aisthefirst

A post shared by Aisling Daly (@aisydaly) on Jul 26, 2017 at 7:42am PDT

At one point early in her career, she was asked to pose nude for a photo shoot with just MMA gloves covering her modesty. As the years passed Aisling said she's convinced she made the right choice by turning it down, "Some women find it empowering to take their clothes off for a sports photo shoot, I never found that. I always had it in the back of my mind somewhere that there is a little girl looking up to me". As the years passed Aisling said she's convinced she made the right choice by turning it down, "Some women find it empowering to take their clothes off for a sports photo shoot, I never found that. I always had it in the back of my mind somewhere that there is a little girl looking up to me".  

Great chatting to Niamh Maher today on the @herdotie 'Girls with Goals' podcast. Lots of interesting topics covered, watch this space for when the podcast will air! ? #SBG #SBGSwords #SBGladies #onetribeonevibe #lifttrainingstudios #personaltraining #pt #girlsingis #mma #girlswholift #weights

A post shared by Aisling Daly (@aisydaly) on Sep 6, 2017 at 7:48am PDT

Listen in to the full interview with Aisling below at 14:11, and don't forget to subscribe to get your weekly dose of Girls With Goals... nothing's off limits. Episodes are available to download every Monday morning on iTunes and Soundcloud.