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UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey ripped into a reporter during Wednesday's UFC 184 media conference call when asked if the lack of a male presence at the top of next Saturday's card will hurt the Women's MMA cause.
According to the reporter who asked the question, the buys for the pay-per-view could potentially suffer without a male presence in one of the top two fights featured on the event. Rousey, however, was quick to disagree.
"Well I think it's a great opportunity to be able to prove something," Rousey responded. "But otherwise, you know, it is what it is. There was 46 UFC events last year. I think that's something like 20 to 30 percent more than they ever did the year before that.
"There's a lot of factors that affect pay-per-view. But you know what, I think that this card is going to perform extremely well, and compared to the guys, I think it's going to hang in there and be respectable, and that's why they have enough faith to put us in there. The UFC has been around for more than 20 years. They know how business works and they're not going to put together a card like this if they think it's going to fail."
Rousey's opponent for next Saturday, undefeated number one Women's Bantamweight contender Cat Zingano, was quick to agree.
"Us women, we go out there and we've already proven enough," Zingano said. "Women's MMA has come a really long way, and in my opinion, just from the people I talk to or the responses that I get, or the responses that I see from multiple people just everywhere, people look forward to us fighting. They get excited.
"You can have a fight card full of male fights, but yet when that women's fight comes on, that's what people want. They're super excited by it. So I have to agree. I think the UFC was smart with the choice that they're making, and all of us girls are going to go out there and do what we do and prove why we're out there. It'll be exciting."
It was at this point that Rousey started to lose her cool. With the tone of her voice quickly sounding more serious, Rousey offered a few more comments.
"You even asking the question, it really proves that there ain't equality for women yet," Rousey said. "If they put up a men's 125-pound main and co-main event, people wouldn't be asking the question, ‘Oh, if this doesn't sell very well, we might just get rid of the whole men's division.' Why are we still even asking this question? Do you remember the last time you asked that question to a guy?
"You know what, lighter divisions are a turn off for some people, but you don't ask them about that. Like, ‘Oh, don't people just want to see heavyweights?' Your kind of opinion is the thing that we're trying to change. You are what we need to change about this culture."
Rousey concluded, "That's the difference between a journalist and a mama's basement blogger. It's not trying to get any actual information and report the news, it's just trying to get a rise out of people, which is really unprofessional. I know what a journalist is supposed to look like and supposed to behave and that guy wasn't it. But whatever. Not everybody can be good at their job."
You can listen to the complete UFC 184 media conference call by
clicking here.
H/T For Transcribing:
MMAFighting.com.
