Ronda Rousey has her third UFC this weekend when she defends her bantamweight title against Sara McMann in the main event at UFC 170. In that time, she has made a huge impression on Dana White, who, according to Yahoo! Sports, raved about her at a recent press junket.
“She’s the hugest superstar. I’m going to go out and say she’s the biggest star we’ve ever had,” said the UFC president. “Ronda’s never cheated, ever. She’s an Olympian. She’s a world champion who has not only defended her [expletive] title, but I asked her to go back-to-back and she [expletive] did it. Coming straight off filming two [expletive] movies, a training camp. This girl, the other thing with this girl? She gets the [expletive] flu, gets sick, run down, [expletive] like she’s going to die, and she still [expletive] trains through camp.”
“I’ve got a big 6-foot-8 [expletive] musclehead whose rib hurts and won’t [expletive] fight dos Santos. This chick does two movies back-to-back, fights, comes back in [expletive] camp, films The Ultimate Fighter, [expletive] does all these appearances and all this other [expletive]. She’s a [expletive] rock star. She’s never cheated. She’s done all these great things. She’s an Olympian and she has to answer questions about Cyborg [expletive] Santos?”
Both women have won an Olympic medal (Rousey bagged a bronze in Judo at Beijing in 2008 and McMann took silver in wrestling at Athens in 2004).
When McMann was asked if she was being rushed into the fight so it would be a showdown of Olympic proportions (given the Winter Games are still ongoing in Sochi), she reportedly told the press that now was as good a time as any, and getting some more fights under her belt would only give Rousey more time to hone her skills further too.
Expert Help
While she holds a black belt in Judo, Rousey worked with the Gracie family during camp to sharpen up her jiu jitsu skills ahead of this assignment. Here she is with welterweight Jake Ellenberger, Rener Gracie and striking coach Edmond Tarverdyan.
She also trained with kickboxer Melsik Baghdasaryan and boxer Gennady Golovkin. For those who are not fervent followers of the sweet science, Golovkin (29-0, 26 KOs) is one of the most feared and avoided fighters in boxing. The 31-year-old WBA/IBO champion has pulverized all of his recent opponents, and he has an a record-high 88.66 percent knockout rate. If Rousey got some pointers off him, then her striking game can only have improved.
Can McMann wrestle the belt off the champ, or will Rousey’s profile soar higher with another main event win? Let us know what you think!
