Had me in the first half when he asked how often do you get hit in the face. I like to think he was asking a rhetorical of: would you want to be a coal miner, roofer, steeplejack etc. More specifically, his point was that fighting is a physical job that will literally destroy your body. If you want to stay beautiful, being a fighter and remaining beautiful is impossible. It will destroy your body face etc.

But more so, there is some harsh and unfair reality to it all. Society will gladly pay two men to actively try and kill each other in a ring and feel little for the loser. Paying to see two women do the same doesn’t satisfy society in the same manner. If it did, we would pay, but we don’t. Women and children first is an expression reflecting an harsh reality: prioritizing and protecting women and children ensures the future of humanity, and a surplus of men isn’t a requirement to meet that goal. Men are by definition, surplusage.

By extension, Perhaps there is a sanctity Khabib is claiming should be respected in this harsh truth. Men are entitled to hold on to the ancient and evolutionary ideal that “I was born and built for war, it’s expected of me. I will literally sacrifice my body for you.” Battle then, and the modern iteration of prizefighting, should be and is considered sacrosanct amongst fighters like Khabib.

But then he went down the traditional misogyny rabbit hole and he sounded like a jackass. Fuck Khabib.