So yesterday I was just doomscrolling through some sports stuff online, you know how it is. Kept seeing folks mention this “*/16days” thing all over the place. Honestly? Had zero clue what it was about. Thought maybe it was some new fight card announcement or maybe a fighter promo. Decided, alright, time to figure this out myself.
First thing? Headed straight to the usual spot – typed * right into my browser. Loaded up the homepage. Saw all the usual fight news, rankings, hype videos. Started scanning around for anything mentioning “16 days”. Top navigation? Nope. Big hero banner? Nothing jumping out. Almost gave up, figured it must be buried deeper.
Then I spotted it. Tiny little thing, honestly easy to miss. Bottom right corner of the page, sitting quiet like. Just a small image or banner labeled “16 days”. Clicked it fast before it disappeared. Boom! Landed on the */16days page itself. Felt like finding a secret door or something.
Okay, page loads. First impression? Not what I expected at all. This wasn’t about fights or knockouts. The whole vibe was different. Serious pictures, strong taglines about ending violence against women. Big letters saying “The 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence”. Right then, clicked for me. This was something bigger than just UFC fights.
Started reading through it. Here’s the guts of what I found out:
- What it actually is: It’s this global campaign that happens every single year. Runs exactly 16 days, starts November 25th (International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, learned that!), ends December 10th (International Human Rights Day).
- The main goal: Super clear focus – raise awareness and call for an absolute end to violence against women and girls everywhere. Everywhere.
- UFC’s part: They jumped on board years back as partners. Use their massive platform – fighters, fans, everything – to spread the word loud and proud.
- Lots of stuff happens: Saw mentions of them creating special campaigns each year, their fighters stepping up to record PSAs (you know, those video messages), pushing education stuff, lighting their HQ in orange (the campaign color!), and driving people to learn more and take action themselves.
Finding the dates made me realize – this thing is active RIGHT NOW! Well, it happens every year around November/December, so keep an eye out.
Honestly, felt pretty surprised. Here I was, ready for some fight news, and I get hit with this heavy, important message instead. Saw a couple of fighter PSAs right there on the page – big names too, looking dead serious into the camera talking about respect and stopping violence. Felt real.
Part of me got it, you know? Using their reach for good stuff. Smart. Important. The other part? That cynical voice in the back of my head? Whispered, “Yeah, but still feels weird promoting smashing faces for money while also running this, huh?”. Mixed feelings city.
Ended up clicking around a bit more. Found links to UN Women, some resources. Actually ended up reading more about the whole global movement later, way deeper than I planned when I first typed in *!
My big takeaway from this little deep dive? */16days isn’t about the fight sport. It’s UFC putting its muscle behind a crucial fight against gender-based violence. You go in expecting Pay-Per-View, you come out getting hit with social action. Definitely learned something new today, even if it wasn’t the ground-and-pound I thought I was signing up for.
