Ronda Rousey Is The New Face Of EA Sports
Ronda Rousey has been dominating her field with a 12-0-0 record. Now, she can add one more achievement to her record. EA, Electronic Arts, announced a new mixed martial arts video game will come out featuring an undefeated champion. The Bantamweight champion has been chosen to grace the cover of the UFC 2 game. The game is set to release Spring 2016.
Fortune.com says “This shift towards female fans hasn’t come out of nowhere; Rousey is the most dominant and recognized fighter in the world, according to a statement by the UFC. In addition to having a female fighter on the cover of the game, UFC 2 will allow players to play as women in the game’s career mode for the first time. ”
Rousey says, “As a gamer myself, it’s pretty surreal to be on the cover of the game and to have a woman on the cover of a UFC game shows a lot of progress. I’m really happy to be involved with it.”
The cover shows Rousey in the foreground with an unknown male standing behind her. It is uncertain at this time who will be featured alongside the female champion. Rousey has been on several covers, including Maxim, The Ring, Men’s Fitness, SELF, and more. However, it is unusual for a female athlete to be featured on the cover of sports video games.
EA Sports Creative Director Brian Hayes said Rousey was the obvious choice due to her championship title and impressive record in MMA. “It’s the first time a female athlete’s been the lead cover athlete for an EA SPORTS title,” Hayes told MMAjunkie.
Hayes says it is a testament to Rousey’s success because they had no plans to put a woman on the cover of their video game until she showed up on the scene. Not only was there no plans to put a female on the cover, but there was a lack of female MMA fighters before Rousey. He adds that, “There was no concept of female fighters in the game, to now there is a female fighter in the cover who is arguably the biggest UFC fighter in the world.”
Rousey has been busy promoting her upcoming fight in Melbourne, yet, she admits to being burned out and tired of the daily grind of marketing herself and her fights. Bleacherreport.com reports that the 28-year-old is excited to take a break after defending her title so strenuously.
“I’m selling a product and I have to be out there; I don’t have the option not to be. But after this fight, I’m definitely going to let some people miss me, for sure. Believe me, there’s nothing I would like to do more than disappear for a while. I would like to wait until UFC 200 to fight again. I’m going to be filming [movies] in the meantime, so I’m still going to be keeping busy. When I’m filming it’s kind of weird, I’m on camera the whole time, but nothing really goes out until a year or two later. It is kind of like disappearing in a way. What I’m really looking to do is retire undefeated,” she says. I’m not sure when the right time to retire will be, but I know that I’m not done yet.”
Ronda Rousey takes on Holly Holm on Saturday Night as the main event of UFC 193 in what is expected to be the largest crowd ever to view a UFC fight. The fight should prove to be interesting after the two contenders tried to start the fight early. Punches were thrown during the weigh in of the UFC 193 event.
[Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Image]
