Inaugural UFC women’s bantamweight queen Ronda Rousey will return to MMA for the first time in nearly a decade and will lock horns with “face of women’s MMA” Gina Carano on May 16 at the Intuit Dome in Los Angeles.
Ahead of this blockbuster showdown, Ronda Rousey confessed why pressure does not get to her anymore.
The UFC Hall of Famer, who is also an Olympic medalist in judo, believes the pressure she experienced competing twice at the Olympic Games (2004,2008) was far greater than anything she has faced in MMA or anywhere else. Hence, entering the hexagon on May 16 and the thought of getting punched in the face by Carano don’t bother her at all. She told ESPN MMA’s SportsCenter:
I’ve been to two Olympics. Nothing compares to that kind of pressure, training your whole life for one day. Everything else just kind of pales in comparison. It’s so funny, people who have never fought are like, ‘It must be such a big deal getting punched in the face.’ But when you’re actually fighting, it’s not like you have an opinion about it. It’s just an observation that you have at the time. That’s not what’s scary. It’s the pressure of the situation, the result, that really gives you anxiety, not the physical pain that could come out of it.”
Notably, “Rowdy” was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo. She won bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics (Judo Women’s 70 kg category).
Ronda Rousey is still confident in her technique and “wittiness inside the cage”
Ronda Rousey’s last MMA outing was in 2016 at UFC 207 against Amanda Nunes, where she suffered a first-round TKO loss.
Now, despite returning to MMA after years, Rousey is confident in her technique and her ability to send her opponents to the shadow realm. Cage rust is something she is not worried about at all:
Recovery is a lot more important. I might not have as much collagen or cartilage as I had in the past, but I have more knowledge than I ever have. I really feel like it’s my technique and my wittiness inside the cage that always set me apart. It’s why whenever I get my hands on anybody, they never get up again. I’ve never been better in that way.”
Lastly, about her updated regimen, Ronda Rousey explained that she has shifted her focus more to recovery lately.
We had to change training around, where instead of doing multiple trainings a day, I just do one marathon training at the beginning of the day, and I spend the whole rest of the day doing recovery, because it’s really hard warming up twice in a day when you’ve had as many athletic careers as myself.”
Check out Ronda Rousey’s comments below (starting 2:51):
The Ronda Rousey vs. Gina Carano superfight, a matchup many years in the making, will finally be contested as a featherweight bout at 145 pounds, which will stream live on Netflix on May 16.
This is Netflix’s first MMA event and also the first MMA event promoted by Jake Paul’s MVP. As confirmed, the bout will be professionally sanctioned under the Unified Rules of MMA and contested over five five-minute rounds inside a hexagon, with both fighters donning 4-ounce gloves.
