Rousey reportedly in ‘sick shape’

A funny thing happens to some fighters when they are aren’t fighting.

Tyson lost a reported 140 pounds via yoga and veganism, after peaking, he says, at 380.

When former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey took time off after losing to Holly Holm, there were some unkind remarks about the few images of her that appeared on social media.

The bantamweight belt went from Holm to Miesha Tate to current titleholder Amanda Nunes. Now Rousey and Nunes fight at UFC 207 on December 30, and president Dana White reports she is in “sick shape.”

“It is exciting,” said White, as transcribed by Yahoo Sports. “Obviously, the return of Ronda is a big deal. She is taken this thing so seriously … Guess what she is weighing right now? 135 lbs. She is doing everything she can to keep her weight on. She is in sick shape.”

The well-connected Ariel Helwani heard a similar thing.

https://twitter.com/arielhelwani/status/806164773645717504

And for disbelievers, Rousey has a new commercial out for the shampoo Pantene in which she appears near ready to weigh in. The voice over sounds a little like Joe Rogan and Mike Goldberg commentating at the same time, and saying “again” a lot.

Rousey discussed the new “Strong is Beautiful” campaign in an interview with Laura Regensdorf for Vogue.

Laura Regensdorf: What is your first memory of Pantene?

Ronda Rousey: When we’d have a really bad blizzard in North Dakota, we only had enough water in the hot-water heater for one bathtub, and if the pipes froze, we had to take scoops of snow and heat them up on the stove and throw the boiling water into the bathtub. So me, my sisters, and my mom, we would all end up sharing one bath. None of us are morning people, so it was like, the first one up gets the fresh water, and the last one to get out of bed gets half-Pantene, half-water.

LR: Was there a point when you came to terms with the fact that strong is beautiful?

RR: It was slowly creeping up on me that I was feeling more confident, but as soon as I saw that I had the ESPN body cover, that completely changed how I saw my body. The things that I would hide in high school were being highlighted in this magazine that is about the peak of human potential. And I wasn’t the only one: There were so many other beautiful women who specialized in different sports, and it really put into perspective that strong is beautiful. It can’t be more simply said. A lot of women out there are just naturally thin, and that doesn’t mean that they’re not strong in their own ways. Strength is more than just what’s physical.