Ronda Rousey Talks UFC Debut, GSP on Women’s MMA, Sex Before Fighting, and Zombies

The MMA world has been buzzing ever since Ronda Rousey was announced as the first ever woman to sign with the UFC.

Over the last year, Rousey has quickly become one of the sport’s biggest stars and now that she’s in the UFC that star power will only grow. The newest addition to the list of champions in the Octagon hadn’t done any interviews about her new UFC deal until Wednesday night when she appeared on Jim Rome’s new sports program on Showtime.

Of course, the major point of interest for Rousey’s appearance was her new UFC contract, which marks the first time the promotion has ever signed a female fighter, and now the entire bantamweight division will join its champion in the Octagon in 2013.

Ronda Rouse on UFC Signing

Rousey was obviously excited by the opportunity to sign on with the UFC, but inking a contract is only the start for the work she believes is still ahead for her.

“There’s so much more that I want to do, that like once it happened I was like ‘yes this is amazing!’ And then right after I’m like now I have to fight, now I have to do this, so I’m very, very excited, but I really didn’t spend that much time dwelling on it because there’s so many more things that I have to get done now that that’s happened,” Rousey stated.

“I need to prepare for my fight coming up. I can’t just sit around and do a little dance about getting signed, I’ve got to win my fight.”

The fight Rousey is talking about hasn’t been announced yet, but it appears there are initial signs that something could be coming very soon. A few names have been rumored as Rousey’s potential first opponent with fellow Strikeforce transfer Liz Carmouche leading the way as a possible candidate.

No matter who the fighter ends up being, Rousey knows that the initial celebration about signing and being the first woman in the UFC doesn’t really matter much if she doesn’t go out and perform in her bout.

Rousey Addresses Georges St-Pierre’s Recent Comments on Women’s MMA

“It’s good for her,” UFC welterweight champion Georges St-Pierre recently said about Rousey’s arrival in the organization. “I’m happy for the girls that fight, but me personally, I have a hard time watching the girls fight. It’s the way I grew up maybe, the mentality, I’m different, I’m old school, but I have a hard time watching girls fighting. It’s hard for me.”

St-Pierre’s comments were met with some harsh criticism by many of the female fighters who took offense to his statement that he was not a fan of women’s MMA.

Count Rousey among them because she was not a fan of St-Pierre’s remarks and believes they are akin to boxing fans who sometimes discount mixed martial arts without really appreciating what goes into the sport.

“Initially the way that he said it, it reminds me a lot like when you listen to boxing fans that are like ‘oh, the MMA fighters, they’re good athletes, and they’re talented and good for them, but I can’t stand to see guys humping on the ground like that, it’s not a real man’s sport, good for them that they make money’ that kind of prejudice against it,” Rousey stated.

“He seems to have very much that same kind of prejudice towards women in MMA, and he said it as tactfully as possible, that doesn’t make it a tactful thing to say.”

Based on her initial response via Twitter, Rousey says she found herself in the crosshairs of some strong criticism, but she’s not backing down from standing up for women’s MMA, whether it’s Georges St-Pierre or anyone else making the comments.

“People were getting mad at me for being, like, that’s wrong. But if there’s an absence of debate, I think that just pretty much means acceptance of it,” said Rousey. “These girls when they go out to fight, they’re pouring their hearts out, they deserve to be celebrated and not just merely tolerated.”

Rousey Talks About “Abstaining” from Sex Before a Fight

There’s an old ideology in sports that you shouldn’t engage in sex for a certain amount of time leading up to competition.

Some boxers say they abstain from any sex for six weeks leading up to a contest, and the mythology has been studied by different doctors with some supporting the claim and other shooting it down as not backed up by biological fact.

For her part, Rousey goes in the opposite direction because she’s a woman.

“For girls, it raises your testosterone, so I try to have as much sex as possible before I fight, actually. Not with like everybody. I don’t put out like a Craigslist ad or anything, but if I got a steady I’m going to be like ‘yo, fight time’s coming up,'” Rousey said with a laugh.

She went on to point out that there have been studies done that show men who abstain for months leading up to a fight, the practice can actually backfire in their physical readiness for competition.

But there are always drawbacks, as Rousey put it bluntly, “You can’t (expletive) somebody and go fight that day.”

Rousey on Surviving the Zombie Apocalypse

Rome asked Rousey a varied number of questions during her time on the show, and she addressed them all point blank and with honest, candid responses. Rousey talked about her desire to punch Kim Kardashian in the face, and a few other topics, but none quite as interesting as what she would do in the face of a zombie apocalypse.

“(Expletive) houseboats. Houseboats,” Rousey said when asked where she would go.

“It depends on the kinds of zombies you’re dealing with, if you have slow, all the time slow daytime zombies or you could have sprinting fast nighttime zombies, like in 28 Days Later, so it would kind of really depend. I would lean more towards houseboats if it was sprinting nighttime zombies cause then you could just go out at night and just come back and chill during the daytime, just live on a boat. It would be cool.”

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