LAS VEGAS – It's not unusual for there to be long lines outside the Apple Store on the lower level of Fashion Show Mall. Anytime a new iPhone, iPad or computer is released, it's shoulder to shoulder in the mall's Great Hall for hours.

There was no new iPhone or iPad on Wednesday, but the Great Hall outside of the Apple Store was overflowing with people once again.

This time, the star attraction was not a shiny new iPhone, but Ronda Rousey, the UFC women's bantamweight champion and burgeoning superstar. When Rousey has a fight scheduled, she's about as in demand as any iPhone.

Rousey defends her belt Saturday in the co-main event of UFC 175 when she faces Alexis Davis in her third bout in six months.

She's quickly becoming the face of the UFC, if she isn't already.

View photos Rousey faces Alexis Davis in the co-main event of UFC 175 on Saturday. (Getty Images) More

"People love Ronda," UFC CEO Lorenzo Fertitta said. "People ask all the time what it takes to become a star, but there isn't a list of points you could write on a sheet of paper and say, 'Well, do this, this, this and this, and you'll be a big star.' There are people who have all those things, and they don't have that kind of passionate fan base.

"Ronda is one of those people who draws others to her. People want to see her and hear what she has to say. She has that 'it' factor that it takes to cross over and become a star."

Rousey has been asked dozens, if not hundreds, of times about her stardom and her place in the UFC's pecking order. While UFC management, particularly president Dana White, is outspoken in its belief about her stardom, Rousey often seems embarrassed by the line of questioning.

If she believes she's the UFC's biggest star, she's not saying.

"How does someone say something like that about themselves," she said, laughing. "I mean, what kind of self-absorbed, egotist would you have to be to go around and say, 'Yeah, I'm the biggest star around here'? It's crazy. I worry about getting myself ready to fight and doing my job to help sell it and I let other people figure out who is or who isn't a star. It doesn't matter to me."

The one surprise this far into her career is that she has yet to land that major A-list sponsor. Rousey is among the most popular fighters in the world, as well as one of the most recognizable female athletes.

UFC lightweight champion Anthony Pettis just landed major sponsorship deals with Wheaties and Reebok.

But Rousey hasn't landed one of those deals yet, despite her fame as a fighter and her dual role as a movie star. She's made three movies and seems likely to end her MMA career sooner rather than later so she can make movies full-time.

She seems a perfect fit for many blue-chip companies, and hinted she has a big deal on the way. Most of the highest-paid athletes in the world make staggering amounts of money from sponsorships, frequently more than they earn from their sports salary.

Floyd Mayweather tops the 2014 Forbes list of the world's highest paid athletes, with earnings of $105 million. But Mayweather is the only athlete on the list to not earn endorsement income.

The next five highest-paid athletes – Cristiano Ronaldo, LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Kobe Bryant and Tiger Woods – earned a combined $149.7 million in salary or winnings, Forbes reported, and made $190 million in endorsement money.

Mega-endorsement money is one of the few areas in which Rousey is far behind her competition in a career that has seen her go from a largely unknown Olympic athlete to one of the most known professional athletes in the world.

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