Caraway: TUF exposed Ronda Rousey

UFC bantamweight Bryan Caraway recently appeared on Ariel Helwani’s The MMA Hour, and offered his thoughts on what the latest season of TUF did for Ronda Rousey’s popularity. Caraway dates Rousey’s arch rival Miesha Tate, and thinks the show was a disaster for Rousey.

“I absolutely do (believe Ronda lost fans),” said Caraway as transcribed by MMAMania. “I think the world’s getting a little bit of balance back. The UFC PR machine is incredibly strong. Ronda was the all American blonde girl, Olympic medalist, and was beating everybody in the first round so they said, ‘This is gold, we’re going to take her and mold her into whatever we want her to be.’ As far as her personality, she has the credentials and physical appearance to market well. The UFC did a great job on that and I think the Ultimate Fighter shed just a little bit of light on the type of person that she really is.

“I do think that it exposed her, I would say, and I think the balance has shifted a little bit and Miesha has gained a lot more fan following base. I definitely don’t think Miesha is the fan favorite, I mean, Ronda still has 350,000 followers, or whatever it is, and there are a lot of people who don’t follow the sport that close enough that they just see the she’s an Olympian and a cute girl that’s a world champion. They just see the little list of credentials and accomplishments that she’s done and they think this girl has done so much and she’s amazing. But they don’t know anything about her personally.

“On a personal level, I definitely think for the fans that follow MMA, it definitely brought a little balance to women’s MMA and gained followers for Miesha.”

What do you think UG? Did your feelings about Ronda Rousey change over the season?