There’ve been words flung back and forth between Team Rousey v. Team Mayweather about whether or not Ronda Rousey could handle not just Mayweather, but any man when pitted against her in the ring. Rousey may be the UFC women’s bantamweight champion, but that doesn’t necessarily mean she could take on a dude — or does it? I don’t have the answer for you and nor will anyone ever, because Rousey says she’ll never, ever step into the ring to fight a man.
Speaking on The Project in Australia on Tuesday evening, the blonde athlete explained: ‘I don’t think, as a professional sport, we can have situation where an entire stadium is cheering about a man hitting a woman’.(via)
I mean…yeah, that’s a pretty solid point. The sport is literally pitting people against each other to fight, so what kind of double standard would she be setting if she went head-to-head with a man in the ring and then condemned it in real life? However, Rousey was quick to differentiate that even though her fights are, well, fights — that shouldn’t necessarily discredit the sport:
The Olympic medalist said: ‘If they think it’s just violent then it shows their ignorance to the sport.
‘They say the arm bar is such a terrible move, but when I did it at the Olympics I was called a hero.’
She continued: ‘But how come when I make money from it, I’m some barbarian? They have boxing and taekwondo, all types of striking in the Olympics, but how come when we make money it’s somehow violent?
‘It’s celebrated in one area and condemned in the other, it makes no sense.’(via)
[H/T Daily Mail]