FEMALE agents - as rare and conspicuous in the sporting world as a hermaphrodite breaking 800m sprint records.
Not one footballer or cricketer in this country - not likely any country - is managed by a woman.
Yet in the sport considered most manly of all, mixed martial arts, Shari Spencer is creating waves not because she manages two of the UFC's five world champions, but because she is opening the kind of marketing doors that were once padlocked shut for cage fighters.
Spencer handles the careers of welterweight champion Georges St Pierre - probably the most popular UFC fighter today - and lightweight champion Frankie Edgar, who defends his title this weekend at UFC 118 against BJ Penn.
Should Edgar retain his title, Australia's George Sotiropoulos will be waiting in the wings as his next potential opponent.
Spencer is trying to take St Pierre and Edgar beyond the marketing world of MMA and into the mainstream. She has already orchestrated sponsorship deals for St Pierre with Gatorade and a skincare company - "He appeals to the women" - while married father-of-two Edgar is being geared towards family-friendly brands.
Edgar knew he had the right manager from their first encounter. "I walked into the hotel room and she gave me a flight itinerary for - and my whole family," he recalls. "Every booking for them was also completed, I had never had that with previous managers."
Spencer is not looking to get attention as the UFC's only female managers, rather as its most progressive manager.
She walked into contract negotiations with UFC president Dana White - notorious for his blunt communication style - and put on a PowerPoint presentation explaining why St Pierre and Edgar were entitled to large shares of the company's spoils.
Having spent the previous 20 years in business management, Spencer was armed with information that left White with little room to manoeuvre.
"I obtained some figures that were on public record," Spencer said, but given the UFC is extremely private about their commercial bottom lines, "some of the figures were based on my own estimations and calculations".
"I don't wish to be recognised simply because I am a female manager, I would rather be recognised for the managerial strategies I implement and what I achieve for my clients."
With the good work done out of the Octagon, Edgar must now silence the doubters who still believe he somehow fluked it against Penn in their first fight, a major upset.
"I think that result made a lot of people stand up and take notice, and believe," Edgar said.
And he will attest to that old adage about what's behind every good man.
In an industry where hurt is the business, he says: "A woman's touch can't hurt."
http://mmaanalysed.com/index.php?option ... c&Itemid=2
