00:00He was up against the best female player in the world, but as he continued to embarrass her with
00:04each point, it started to get quite hard to watch. It was dubbed the Mother's Day Massacre,
00:09the day when 55-year-old former men's professional player Bobby Riggs obliterated the world number
00:15one in women's tennis, Margaret Court, in straight sets. It was a disheartening day for women
00:20everywhere, not just because a retired men's player had so easily crushed the top woman in
00:25the sport, but because of the man who did it. A 55-year-old guy beat those girls forever.
00:29Bobby Riggs had become notorious for his obnoxiously sexist views.
00:33Personally, I wish a woman would stay in a home and do the kitchen work and take care of the
00:38babies.
00:39And he proudly wore the label of male chauvinist pig as a badge of honor. And after this win,
00:44Bobby's already big head continued to balloon out of control. He boasted that he was going to tour
00:50the world, defeating the best women's tennis players from every country to prove his superiority,
00:55like some kind of misogynistic supervillain. His taunting was relentless, and it particularly
01:00infuriated Billie Jean King, who by the end of the year had surpassed Margaret Court as the newest
01:05world number one in women's tennis. And as a leading figure in the women's liberation movement,
01:10fighting for equal prize money and respect for female athletes, it felt like a direct assault on
01:15everything she stood for. So, a $100,000 winner-take-all match was set between Billie Jean King and Bobby
01:22Riggs,
01:22and it was dubbed the Battle of the Sexes. On the day of the match, it truly did become an
01:27insane
01:27spectacle, drawing what was at the time the largest crowd to ever witness a tennis match in the US.
01:33Billie was carried into the arena Cleopatra style by four bare-chested men dressed as ancient slaves.
01:39Bobby followed with his own dramatic entrance, arriving in a rickshaw pulled by a team of models
01:44he called Bobby's Buxom Beauties. The crowd watching knew whatever happened in this match,
01:49it was going to be talked about for years to come. When playing against other women,
01:52Billie was known for her aggressive, powerful style. However, after deeply studying Bobby's
01:58game, she understood that she couldn't compete with him on power alone. Despite his age, Bobby was
02:03still an impressive player, but he certainly wasn't as fit. So, Billie devised a different tactic.
02:08She was going to make Bobby run. She'd use lobs, drop shots, and baseline rallies to move him all over
02:14the court, forcing longer points, confident that Bobby would eventually run out of steam. As the match began,
02:20Bobby took an early lead in the first set. However, Billie's strategy started to pay off quicker than
02:25expected and, to the shock of many, she won the first set, 6-4. Bobby was shaken. And while he
02:31continued fighting for his own sense of masculine pride, Billie remained cool and composed and took
02:37the second set, 6-3. By the third set, Bobby was exhausted and demoralized. Billie needed one more
02:54match against a top female player again.
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