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. The day
00:10when 55-year-old former men's professional player Bobby Riggs obliterated the world number one in
00:15women's tennis, Margaret Core, in straight sets. It was a disheartening day for women everywhere,
00:20not just because a retired men's player had so easily crushed the top woman in the sport,
00:25but 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 the 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 the
00:50world, defeating the best women's tennis players from every country to prove his superiority,
00:55like some kind of misogynistic super villain. His taunting was relentless and it particularly
01:00infuriated Billie Jean King, who by the end of the year had surpassed Margaret Core 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
01:21and Bobby Riggs, and it was dubbed the Battle of the Sexes. On the day of the match, it truly
01:26did
01:26become an insane spectacle, drawing what was at the time the largest crowd to ever witness a tennis
01:32match in the US. Billie was carried into the arena Cleopatra style by four bare-chested men dressed
01:38as ancient slaves. Bobby followed with his own dramatic entrance, arriving in a rickshaw pulled by a team
01:43of models he 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, Billie was known
01:53for her aggressive, powerful style. However, after deeply studying Bobby's game, she understood that
01:59she couldn't compete with him on power alone. Despite his age, Bobby was still an impressive player,
02:04but he certainly wasn't as fit. So, Billie devised a different tactic. She was going to make Bobby
02:10run. She'd use lobs, drop shots, and baseline rallies to move him all over the court, forcing
02:15longer points, confident that Bobby would eventually run out of steam. As a 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 the
02:37second set, 6-3. By the third set, Bobby was exhausted and demoralised. Billie needed one more point
02:42to win, and then... The winner of the battle of the sexes, Billie Jean King. Billie Jean King won in
02:51straight sets, and Bobby Riggs never played a one-on-one match against a top female player again.
