During her latest appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” on Wednesday, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey found out that when you finish your opponents in only 14 seconds they can actually show the entire fight instead of just the highlights.
Rousey had to laugh when Kimmel queued up the clip, which was actually her entire fight against Cat Zingano from February. The win topped Rousey’s last trip to the Octagon where she took out Alexis Davis in just 16 seconds.
As dominant as Rousey has been in her last few fights, the woman hailed as the most dominant athlete in sports promises that she’s not facing lackluster competition, but in all actuality she’s facing the best of the best — so it demands that she’s that much better.
“I’m kind of a victim to my own success in that I fight above myself the better the competition is,” Rousey explained. “So as these girls get better and better, I do better. They’re all studying me, specifically studying me. This chick I’m fighting next I know is doing a lot of Judo preparing for my style.”
The next person on Rousey’s hit list is undefeated Brazilian striker Bethe Correia, who will try to wrestle the title away from Rousey on Aug. 1 at UFC 190 in Brazil.
Rousey will travel to Correia’s home country to defend the title, but she’s not worried about hometown decisions or a raucous crowd turned against her. Fighting in Brazil was a calculated move according to Rousey because when she beats Correia, she wants it to go down as the worst experience of the Brazilian’s entire life.
“The thing is I just want to beat her in the most devastatingly embarrassing way possible,” Rousey said on Kimmel’s show. “I’m not afraid to let go of the hometown advantage. She’s much more than a hometown advantage away from beating me.”
Rousey might face a few jeers from the crowd, but from her past experiences in the South American country, Brazilians can actually be rather kind to her.
Back when she was still competing in Judo before turning to MMA, Rousey faced a hostile Brazilian crowd but through an incredible comeback performance, she found the fans in attendance shouting in her favor instead of her demise.
“I love the Brazilian crowd,” Rousey said. “They booed me out of stadiums, they’ve chanted, ‘You’re going to die’ to me in Portuguese, but they’ve also been the only crowd to cheer for me. Because the semifinals of the World Championships (of Judo) in 2007, I was fighting a girl that was a defending world champion, she was like 7-feet tall; I looked like a hobbit next to her.
“She dislocated my arm and I popped it back into place, and I was behind and there’s 20 seconds left and I threw her with the one arm that I popped back in at the last second. Everyone exploded cheering because it didn’t matter that I wasn’t Brazilian or anything like that. It mattered that they saw something great and I love that crowd.”
Rousey expects to put on a show for the Brazilian crowd at UFC 190, but they will get their money’s worth because she promises this bout with Correia won’t be another record-breaking performance.
Something is going to break, but it won’t be the clock as Rousey wants to punish Correia for as long as humanly possible before finally putting an end to her misery while simultaneously dashing her championship hopes — all in front of her home country crowd.
“If I make the fight fast, that means I like you,” Rousey said. “That’s me at my most merciful. With this next chick that I don’t like, it’s not going to be like that.
“She’s going to look different walking out than she did walking in.”
Courtesy of: Fox Sports
Photo Credit: Mike Roach/Zuffa LLC