Ronda Rousey on MMA return: ‘I’m better than I’ve ever been’
After a decade away from the sport, Ronda Rousey believes she’s returning to MMA as a better fighter than she’s ever been.
Rousey will compete in her first MMA fight since 2016 when she faces off against Gina Carano on May 16. Though her UFC career ended with back-to-back losses, Rousey believes she is smarter and more skilled than she was at the height of her fame.
“I’m better than I’ve ever been. I’m definitely better than I’ve ever been,” she told TMZ Sports this week. “It just really helps so much that the landscape of the sport has changed. You know, people forgot that when I was competing before there were no coaches with MMA experience. There was no one with MMA experience with coaching experience. So usually the person with the most MMA experience on the team was the fighter. And everybody else had their own separate discipline and it was up to the fighter themselves to try and piece things together. Finally with this camp, I have help with that. I’m not just guessing and having to go and spar over and over and over again and try and piece things together and figure things out. It’s us as a team actually developing all of this together.
Rousey admits that she’s not as strong and as explosive as she once was, but she feels she’s made more than enough progress in other areas to make up for that.
“I was more strong and more explosive and, you know, more cartilage and collagen before. But always what set me apart is my technique and how skilled I am as a martial artist,” Rousey said. “And I’ve never been more skilled, my technique’s never been better, I’ve never had a better and higher fight IQ. This is definitely the best that I’ve ever been.”
The Rousey vs. Carano fight is being promoted by MVP Promotions and will air live on Netflix. This marks new territory for the streaming giant, which has never broadcast a live MMA event before. Rousey hopes the show will lead to Netflix investing in MMA more.
“I really want to knock it out of the park and be able to bring fighters the kind of paychecks that they really deserve in this sport,” she said. “I feel like MMA has been really left behind in combat sports when it comes to that. And I want to be part of changing that.”
Francis Ngannou vs. Philipe Lins is the co-main event of the May 16 show, which is being held at the Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.