Rousey: I win because I’m more scared than they are
Ronda Rousey: “The thing is, I’m so dominant in all of these fights because I am the most scared and fearful of all these girls.”
UFC women’s bantamweight Ronda Rousey recently spoke with Megan Friedman for Elle magazine about the pressure of being a female athlete in the public eye and in the media, among other topics.
Megan Friedman: Your competition is incredible, but the narrative is that you’re unstoppable. That must be a lot of pressure.
Ronda Rousey: The thing is, I’m so dominant in all of these fights because I am the most scared and fearful of all these girls. A lot of people, once they become champion, they relax, kind of sit in the position and try to enjoy it. But I feel like everything I’ve ever worked for could be lost at any moment. I work harder and harder and harder, because I want to be farther ahead with every fight, and not worrying about these girls catching up to me. Nobody’s easy until after you beat them.
MF: Throughout your fighting career, you consistently end up winning in seconds. How does it feel to be so consistently dominant? Do you wish you had a competitor who can also do what you do?
RR: I mean, all of these girls are amazing competitors. The next chick I’m fighting, Holly Holm, is a 19-time boxing world champion, and she’s the most decorated striker in the entire sport of mixed martial arts. I mean, that’s serious competition that I’m coming up against. Somehow, people act like I have no competition, but the thing is, the competition is so good that it forces me to be better than I even thought was possible.
MF: After your comments about not having the body of a “do-nothing bitch” went viral, you trademarked the phrase. What are you going to do with it?
RR: Well, first we had the T-shirt, an apparel line, and we actually took a portion of the proceeds and donated it to the Didi Hirsch mental health clinic, which provides free services for kids with body dysmorphia and eating disorders. We were able to raise a lot of money for them, and I’m thinking of probably doing something along those lines every few months, like a limited edition apparel for fundraising for Didi Hirsch.
These are issues that I think every girl deals with growing up, and it’s something that’s largely ignored and unaddressed. I would like that to be different for girls growing up after me. It shouldn’t have been as hard as it was.
I was in a weight-cutting sport, in judo, so I had to be a certain weight on a deadline. It kind of pushed me into having a really unhealthy relationship with food in my teens. I felt like if I wasn’t exactly on weight, I wasn’t good-looking. It was a lot to get past, and now I can say that I’ve gotten through it, I’ve never been happier with how I look [or] more satisfied with my body. It was definitely a journey to get there.
MF: Female MMA fighters, and athletes in general, are definitely sexualized more than the male ones. Female athletes are pressured to be sexy but also project power. How do you balance that in your life?
RR: Well, I feel like it’s an option that’s available to us, but it’s not really mandatory anymore. I’ve been really encouraged by the growth of women’s mixed martial arts. It’s reached a point where it’s like, okay, you can get a little bit more attention [by acting sexy], but it’s not like it’s needed in order to sell a fight or in order to make a pay-per-view card more successful. It’s another option that’s available to us as women, as athletes, to sell whatever athletic event we’re trying to get attention to. Whereas the men don’t even have that option.
Ronda Rousey fights Holly Holm at UFC 193 on November 14, 2015 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia.
