Ronda Rousey is a lot of things to a lot of people. She’s an MMA pioneer, having brought the sport to new mainstream heights that were previously unseen. She’s an Olympic hero, becoming the first ever American to medal in Judo at the 2008 Olympic Games. She’s one of the most dominant fighters ever seen in major MMA history, dispatching foes with a quickness and efficiency that trumps any GOAT contender, all the way up to Anderson Silva and Fedor Emelianenko.
Perhaps more than anything, though, she’s an incredibly sensitive, angry person. Let me be clear, that’s not a bad thing for a professional fighter or any kind of athlete. Being a world-class competitor requires a different kind of wiring that doesn’t mesh well with any kind of criticism or uncertainty, perceived or real. Still, it makes for lots of awkwardness and bad headlines.
One of the worst was an out-of-nowhere feud with up-and-coming UFC star Paige VanZant. The strawweight contender and Dancing With the Stars runner-up ended up on Rousey 5H17 list for the perceived slight that was PVZ paying a compliment to Holly Holm
Here’s the story courtesy of an interview with Miesha Tate on the Joe Rogan Experience:
“So Paige was also at that VIP party, and Paige and I have spoke, we’re friendly. Don’t know her that well. Anyway, she felt the need, she came up to me like ‘Miesha Miesha Miesha, I have to tell you this experience I had with Ronda.’ I’m like ‘Oh, what?’ And she’s like ‘Well we were at a Reebok deal just recently, and we were at a shoot, and I was trying to find her so we could get a picture…”
“And I guess Ronda came later that day and seeked her out. And just cussed her out. They’ve never really had a conversation either. She’s like ‘I don’t know Ronda other than hi, bye.’ That’s it. I guess she came up, Ronda came up and was like ‘F**k you, you fairweathered bitch. How dare you cross me.’ She (Paige) was like ‘Cross you? What are you talking about?’ And she (Rousey) is like ‘You congratulated Holly Holm for beating me, so f**k you, you f**king fairweathered 115-pound…”. She just went off on Paige.”
According to VanZant, however, the beef has been squashed. Speaking with TMZ, she said that her and Rousey are “cool” and actually went out of her way to plug Rousey’s 2015 book “My Fight / Your Fight”.
VanZant is set to fight this Saturday at UFC on Fox 21 against Bec Rawlings. Ronda Rousey? Well, we don’t know when she’s coming back quite yet. Hopefully it’s soon, though!
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