Ronda Rousey is 'the baddest chick on the planet' in Rolling Stone interview
As rare as it might be that an MMA fighter lands the cover of Sports Illustrated, it's even less often that Rolling Stone sets its sights on someone from the UFC. But that's exactly what the legendary magazine did recently when focusing a story on women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey.
Rousey has been on a media blitz surrounding the release of her new autobiography "My Fight, Your Fight" and its included appearances on "The Howard Stern Show", a Sirius XM town hall meeting and even a feature in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
While the focus of Rousey's interviews will always circle back to her fighting career, it's hard not to think about the many other facets of her life when she's promoting an autobiography like her recent book release.
In the interview, Rousey discussed a number of subjects, but here's a rundown of some of the more memorable quotes and subjects discussed during the feature.
Beating Kim Kardashian's book tour:
"I was like, 'Hell, no! I need mine to be crazier than that! Mine's going to be the best book tour that ever happened! Kim Kardashian, I will beat your book tour!' "
Wardrobe malfunctions happen way more often for women in MMA than you might think:
Rousey addressed her near flashing incident during her first UFC fight against Liz Carmouche from 2013.
"I have a weigh-in bra that's smaller and lighter and I'm a girl, so it's cuter, too, and I wanna look cute. But on fight night, who cares about looking cute? It needs to be effective, only on that particular fight night, I didn't have an effective bra. I just had two cute bras, so I had to wear one of them. At one point, I was perilously close to showing everyone my nipples, so the second I got her off my back, my mind shifted to 'Cover yourself up, girl!' "
Rousey also came perilously close to doing the same thing during her first bout with Miesha Tate, which made her cognizant of another problem she faces after the fight is finished.
"The first Miesha fight, she got her hooks in from behind, and I was like, 'Oh, I can get out of here easy.' But if I did, I would flash everyone, so I had to figure out a way to pull her feet out where my business was facing down, not facing the world. And then I have a phobia about camel toe. I swear to God, every time after I win, even before I take my mouthguard out, I pull my shorts down, and it's because I have a phobia of high-def camel toe, people zooming in on the Internet and everything. It's always, first thing, fix the camel toe!"
It's not all about looks with Rousey:
She addressed the fact that outside of her public-relations appearances or interviews, Rousey rarely ever puts on makeup. Why is that exactly? So when you see her all dolled up, it's that much more special.
"I don't feel the need to be the hot chick every second of the day. I like to be able to surprise people when I turn it on. I want it to be like the movie 'She's All That' when they unveil her. I mean, if you try all the time, there's no unveiling: The veil has already dropped, and that's who the f*** you are, and I still want the veil. And you know, being hard to figure out helps keep people interested."
You ever notice Rousey doesn't flex her muscles on weigh-in day? That's on purpose:
When Rousey was in high school she was already on her way to becoming a Judo superstar, but to get there she had to work out constantly and that meant her teenage body went through some pretty wild changes. Rousey had thick muscles cascading all over her body and that led to ridicule from many of her classmates. She ended up wearing a big, loose-fitting hooded sweatshirt to stop people from seeing her body at one point.
"Eighty-five degrees out, I wouldn't take it off."
It's a stigma Rousey still carries with her today. It's the reason why she usually stands with her arms behind her back when she's weighing in.
"I wouldn't let anybody see my arms."
Speaking of weigh-ins, Rousey often has awful things running through her head:
The final time Rousey will stare down an opponent before stepping into the Octagon with them happens 24 hours before the fight at the weigh-ins. Rousey uses this moment to gain a mental edge over her opponent as she psyches herself up for the battle ahead.
"I'm not looking blankly. You have to have intent, because people can read what you're thinking, and so I'm thinking of all the things I'm gonna do. Like with Cat Zingano. She's a sweet girl, super-awesome chick. But every single time I looked at her, I thought, 'I'm gonna send her home unrecognizable to her own child.' My mind just goes there. To terrible things."
The baddest chick on the planet:
Rousey has gone through a lot of ups and downs to end up where she is today and while she is very much still in the midst of one of the most incredible runs in MMA history, the UFC champion knows she's already accomplished a lot. It's a fact of life that's never lost on her and the legacy she'll leave behind when fighting is over.
"Right now, I'm the baddest chick on the planet. And no matter what else happens to me, I have that."
Rousey also plans on retiring undefeated, in case you didn't know:
"The master plan is to retire undefeated and walk away and not have anything left to prove. It'll be hard to know when it's time, but it'll help to have something else to get into, which is why I'm putting time into acting and the book and buying properties."
Looking for love in all the wrong places:
While fame has captured Rousey over the last few years, she's avoided Cupid's arrow for virtually her entire run in the UFC. Some of it is self chosen, but then again as successful as Rousey is with fighting it seems she's just as unlucky with love.
"I think it's funny when people think that because I'm a female athlete that I must be a lesbian, and I'm like, 'No, I love men so much that I beat the f*** out of girls for a living just to take them all out!'
"The kind of guys I'm into have lots of desirable women willing to do backflips for them and, I mean, if you can look like a man standing next to me, then you're a real f*****g man, but I'm just not doing any backflips."
Still not a Miesha Tate fan:
Rousey may never be able to disconnect herself from the rivaly she built with Tate and that's probably not going away any time soon.
"She's made a whole career out of getting her ass kicked by me."
Winning with style:
Rousey's incredible wins lately exemplify the kind of hard work she puts in at the gym every day to go out and beat an undefeated fighter like Zingano in just 14 seconds. And don't think for a second that Rousey is going out there and just fighting to win.
She's going out to put on a show and make sure everybody in the arena that night has something to talk about the next morning.
"I need to feel pressure. I need to feel like winning is the biggest deal in the f*****g universe. I wouldn't do as well without people watching. I'd still win. But I wouldn't do it with such pizazz. Yeah, that's it. I fight with pizazz. It's a different sound from everyone else. It's the sound of pizazz."
