Ronda Rousey: Cat Zingano can't be intimidated, 'so I don't even try'
UFC president Dana White recently joked publicly that if bantamweight champ Ronda Rousey manages to beat title challenger Cat Zingano on Feb. 28 in the main event of UFC 184, the dominant queen will need to have to start fighting men. During a media scrum Wednesday, Rousey explained that staying undefeated hasn't been as easy as it may look, and insisted that there is plenty of competition left for her among female 135-pound fighters.
"It only looks like that because I've prepared so well," she said.
"The level of competition in the division is very high and it's very tight, and the only reason that it doesn't look that way is because I've prepared so much better and worked so much harder than they do.
"It's not that it is easy. It's that I find a way. I find a solution quicker than they can find a response."
Rousey then went on to list UFC 184 co-main event participants Holly Holm and Raquel Pennington as possible future opponents, as well as Bethe Correia. Rousey almost forgot to mention Jessica Eye, who notoriously busted up Leslie Smith's ear badly in their UFC bout.
"Exploding ear! How do you forget that?" Rousey exclaimed.
"If there's a chick in the division that's making ears explode, there's competition out there."
Before the "Rowdy One" can get to any of those women, she'll have to first take on the undefeated Cat Zingano in just more than a week in Los Angeles. Rousey believes that Zingano is a different breed of fighter than she's ever faced before, both mentally and physically.
"Cat is different because, not only is she undefeated, but she has the kind of indomitable spirit that I haven't seen exhibited by anyone else, at the level that she has," Rousey admitted.
"She's been down in fights before and every single time, she's come back and finished the other person. And, given everything she's been through lately, in her life outside of fighting, I really feel like she's one of those people that's impossible to intimidate, so I don't even try."
In addition to her strong mind and will, Zingano presents a balanced set of threats to Rousey, according to the champ. "She's also the most well-rounded," she claimed.
"I've never gone to the ground with a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt before. Alexis (Davis) was a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu blackbelt, but I didn't get there. I've never been tested that way on the ground. Her first discipline was actually wrestling, and a lot of people forget that. She's a very strong grappler, but everyone knows her for her striking because it's obvious that her striking is an extreme strong suit.
"She's the most well-rounded fighter that I've come across, and she has the best mentality of any opponent that I've come across yet."
Rousey has never had problems giving opponents their due credit. At the end of the day, however, the champion is still confident as ever that she's at another level compared with all other female bantamweights in the world.
"I know I'm still better in every single area," she said.
