Ronda Rousey had a huge 2018 that involved making her long rumored WWE debut and silencing the critics with a series of impressive performances in the squared circle. Now her comeback has extended even further ... to the press! Following her first loss to Holly Holm in 2015, Rousey pulled back from the public eye. Now with the relaunch of her website RondaRousey.com, Rousey is starting to take interviews again on the topic of MMA.
And what topic in MMA is everyone talking about? McGregor vs. Khabib and their out of control rivalry.
”I understand promoting fights and having to sell them, I really do,” Rousey told TMZ Sports. “But I don’t think people have to get arrested in order to do that. I think I’ve been able to prove that you can make a fight exciting and make people really wanna see it without crossing any legal lines.”
Of course, Rousey’s success pales in the face of the McGregor PPV selling machine. Her last two fights hit an impressive 1.1 million, while McGregor’s way too far shtick pulled in an astounding 4.4 million against Mayweather and 2.4 million with Khabib.
And while we’re comparing things, Rousey went on to grade McGregor’s behavior as worse on account of the collateral damage done during his incident.
”I think that Khabib jumping out of the Octagon was not as bad as throwing objects at a bus,” she said. “Because my friend Rose Namajunas was on that bus. My friend, Michael Chiesa, missed his fight because [he got cut by the glass].”
The solution? Punishing fighters in the UFC way before incidents like this explode into black eyes for the sport.
”I think, if you’re gonna draw the line there, you should have drawn it before that,” Rousey declared. “I just feel like there has to be equal treatment all the way across the board. I don’t think that anyone should get special treatment because they’re a bigger draw.”
Fortunately, special treatment will undoubtedly continue, lest the UFC miss out on cracking the three million pay-per-view buy mark with the inevitable McGregor vs. Khabib 2. But if the UFC did cut McGregor, not to worry: Rousey declared she’d absolutely put in a good word with her friends at WWE.