UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey's life is about to change forever and it has nothing to do with her fight career.
The reigning 135-pound UFC title holder just wrapped up filming for her role in The Expendables 3 in Bulgaria and will now head to Atlanta to immediately pick up another acting role in the new Fast and Furious 7 movie already in production.
Rousey is expected to film on that project for approximately a month and return home to California around mid-November. The timing does come under some concern because Rousey has a fight on December 28 against rival Miesha Tate in the co-main event for UFC 168 in Las Vegas.
Will filming back-to-back movies serve as a distraction both physically and mentally to the UFC women's champion on the eve of one of the biggest fight cards in MMA history?
UFC president Dana White, who says he talks to Rousey daily, doesn't believe the arduous filming schedule will harm her preparation for the upcoming fight. If anything the travel and break from being 'Ronda Rousey UFC champion' will do her a lot of good as she gets back into the swing of things for the title fight in December.
"She keeps me in the loop on everything and according to her she's reinvigorated and this thing was the best thing ever for her," White told FOX Sports. "She was burnt. She was smoked from the day she signed with the UFC, all the work she had to do, The Ultimate Fighter, the list goes on and on. I think her stint on The Ultimate Fighter had a lot to do with the fact that she was burning out.
"She says that this trip over there has been amazing for her. She says don't worry about me, I got this."
White says that Rousey is more determined than ever to put Tate in her place after a rough six weeks of filming the reality show together ended with the two fighters almost coming to blows before it was all over. The vitriol Rousey feels towards Tate isn't fading just because she's filming a couple of movies.
Rousey has taken her team on the road with her and has been working out while on set. White says she's currently weighing 141 pounds and it's still more than three months away until she actually steps foot in the Octagon.
"She's lean, she's ripped and she's been training," White said.
Rousey will finish her commitments to Fast and Furious 7 before working her actual fight camp for about six weeks leading up to the fight with Tate. As for her film career, The Expendables 3 will hit theaters on August 15, 2014 while Fast and Furious 7 will debut on July 11, 2014.
