Ronda Rousey doesn’t have a bad word to say about Gina Carano ahead of their fight on Saturday but that’s certainly not true when it comes to other fighters who have name dropped her lately.
As she prepares for her first fight in 10 years, Rousey has faced criticism from several high profile fighters including former UFC middleweight champion Khamzat Chimaev. As he prepared for his recent matchup against Sean Strickland at UFC 328, Chimaev took exception to Rousey insulting the UFC and how the organization treats its athletes as part of her promotional push leading to the Carano fight.
“There never would have been Ronda Rousey without the UFC,” Chimaev said on his YouTube channel.“I hate this. If they pay good or they don’t pay good, who cares? When she was Olympic champ, what did she make then?”
Rousey promised to respond to Chimaev during the pre-fight press conference and she wasted no time unloading on the Chechen native when his comments were brought up to her on Thursday.
“I would want to make something abundantly clear and that’s I owe Dana [White] and the Fertitta’s immensely,” Rousey said. “I would be caught dead before you ever heard me say a bad thing about any of them. But my loyalty is to them and not the company that they sold. I do not owe TKO’s UFC a damn thing.
“F*cking cleft-lip Lincoln is just hating because at his press conference for his fight, people are asking about me and my fight because no one gives a shit about his ineffectual wrestle-f*ck fests. People actually 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.”
Outside of Chimaev’s criticism, Rousey also took time to fire back at former teammate and current UFC women’s bantamweight champion Kayla Harrison in what has become an ongoing war of words.
The verbal battle between them already took center stage when Rousey appeared at a separate press conference in New York, which prompted a response from Harrison during a recent UFC broadcast.
“This fight is not the greatest fight of all time,” Harrison said about Rousey vs. Carano. “It’s between someone who hasn’t fought in 10 years and is coming off two knockout losses and another woman, again another legend, another pioneer, but hasn’t fought in 17 years and is in her 40s.
“Don’t call it the greatest fight of all time. I’m chasing greatness. You’re chasing money. We’re different.”
Harrison, who is recovering from neck surgery, is expected to face Amanda Nunes in a UFC title fight later this year. Of course, Nunes is widely considered the greatest women’s fighter of all time and she sent Rousey into retirement after delivering a brutal first-round knockout when they met back in 2016.
As far as chasing money over greatness, Rousey scoffed at Harrison’s comments and reminded her about everything she already accomplished as a UFC Hall of Famer and the new goals she’s setting with the Carano fight.
Rousey believes if everything goes well on Saturday that this single event could change the game forever, especially if Netflix stays interested in promoting the sport as the largest streaming platform in the world with over 325 million global subscribers. The same goes for MVP with co-founders Jake Paul and Nakisa Bidarian both saying there could be a long term plan to stay involved in MMA if this first event pays off as expected.
“I would say that this is professional fighting,” Rousey said responding to Harrison. “There’s no such thing as discount greatness in professional fighting. The biggest money fight is the biggest fight, period. We obviously have very different definitions of greatness. Mine is making history, having a cultural impact and influencing the future of the sport. I’ve already won a record eight consecutive title fights. There’s nothing left for me to do there. So now me and Gina are smashing the record for the most women have ever been paid in combat sports and who says we can’t parlay the success of this to me and her making a genre shattering martial arts film for Netflix after this.
“Who says the success of this fight can’t create the rival that the UFC needs and give fighters the bargaining power that they’ve never had? Hell, if we knock this out of the park, I could become the face of MVP MMA and the most powerful figure in this sport since Dana. I’m not chasing greatness? Motherf*cker, I am greatness. These bitches are chasing me!”
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