Both sides of Ronda Rousey were on display at the MVP MMA press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday.
Following her exit from MMA in 2016, there was plenty of vitriol from fight fans complaining that Rousey had packed her bags and ran following losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. Still, the return of Rousey has seen a more positive side emerge, and a sizeable portion of the fanbase appears happy to have “Rowdy” back.
“I have so much appreciation and I’m sorry it didn’t always show, and to have your support continue throughout the hard times and be back now throughout I think the beginning of the good times, it really means a lot,” Rousey told Cageside Press during Thursday’s pre-fight press conference, asked about those fans who had remained by her side. “It’s nice to see that people aren’t all just jumping on the bandwagon, they’re actually there for good. And there’s some substance there, it’s not just shallow and fake love. So I appreciate seeing that there’s some real love there too.”
The rest of the press conference covered a wide range of topics which allowed Rousey to show other sides of her. Asked if she would hesitate to break opponent Gina Carano’s arm (the two have been on excellent terms in advance of the fight), Rousey said she would not. Then added that she would help fix it.
“I definitely wouldn’t hesitate to break it, but I also wouldn’t hesitate to put it back. It’s kind of like a wax on, wax off situation. You don’t really break it, you just kind of dislocate it. It’s not that bad. I’ve had my elbow go out several times because I didn’t tap and I thought I was really cool when I was young and wouldn’t pay for it when I was older.”
Now-former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev recently claimed Rousey has been biting the hand that feeds her with her criticism of the UFC of late. Rousey fired back against that notion on Thursday, at least in part.
“I would want to make something abundantly clear, and that’s that I owe Dana [White, UFC CEO and President] and the Fertittas [Lorenzo and Frank, former UFC owners] immensely, and I would be caught dead before you hear me say a bad thing about any of them.”
Rousey added, however, that “my loyalty is to them and not the company they sold. And I do not owe TKO’s UFC a damn thing.”
Dragging Chimaev for his cleft lip and calling him “Kumquat,” Rousey suggested that Chimaev was hating because her name was brought up at the recent UFC 328 press conference, a card Khamzat headlined.
“They can’t stop talking about this fight because it’s so stacked and they’re actually excited to see me fight because unlike kumquat, I have a 100% finish rate.”
