Ronda Rousey charms the pants off the audience on Jimmy Kimmel Live
Maybe Miesha Tate really does just bring out the worst in Ronda Rousey.
The UFC women's bantamweight champion gave a night of awkward and angry interviews during The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale on Saturday night when she was sharing space with her rival and future opponent at UFC 168. That came after an entire season full of middle fingers and expletive-laced tirades from Rousey aimed directly at her next opponent at UFC 168.
But on Monday night, Rousey joined "Jimmy Kimmel Live" on ABC and it was literally as if raging beast The Hulk transformed back into mild-mannered scientist Bruce Banner before our very eyes.
Rousey was all smiles while engaging with Kimmel, and while this was a getting-to-know-you interview with a few stories MMA fans should know by heart at this point, she was all too happy to tell them again to a live studio audience.
From her experiences growing up with her mother, who Rousey describes as "not the cuddly type," she explained where her tendency to pull off the armbar came from at an early age while training for judo competitions.
"She said, 'Well, armbar is the most definite way to win,'" Rousey said. "If you throw someone, they might not count it. If you choke them, they might get up and take a deep breath and be fine. Pins they can make you stand up. But if you break somebody's arm and they make you stand up and you lose to a person with one arm, then you should lose anyways."
Rousey also was asked about her willingness to fight a man inside the cage, but instead she turned the tables on the late-night talk-show host and told the story about the time she really did have to fight a male at a movie theater. It all started because a girl was wearing Uggs while Rousey was trying to watch "Juno."
"It's one of those movies that inspires violence, you know what I mean?" Rousey joked. "There were just that rude group of people in the movie theater. This one girl was wearing a miniskirt and Uggs, which I already think is an affront to humanity. (She) put her two little boots on the side of (my chair)."
The rude behavior lasted the entire movie until the credits rolled, and at that point Rousey finally had enough and yanked one of the girl's boots off her foot and tossed it in anger. As she exited the theater, the girl's boyfriend decided to make an issue out of her action, and that's when he found out Rousey just happened to be a world class judoka.
"I was very, very calm about it. I tried to get past the guy again and he pushed me, and I grabbed him by the shirt and I just started punching him with one hand," Rousey said.
The day after Rousey and her friends (who were also both women) beat up the guy and a couple of his cohorts, the police came calling on her -- not to file charges necessarily as much as to get a good laugh out of the situation.
"They told it to the police the next day and the police called me laughing," Rousey stated.
The interview closed with Rousey briefly talking about facing Tate again at UFC 168, but even then her ire was never raised and she stayed smiling and charming throughout the entire interview. Say what you will about Rousey's interactions around Tate, but when the spotlight is on and her next opponent isn't standing around, the UFC women's bantamweight champion is still one of the brightest shining stars in the sport.
