UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey continues to dominate inside the octagon, but she also continues to surprise both her legion of fans and others as well. Rousey had said that when she won against Bethe Correia August 1, she would leave her title belt behind in Brazil, a move which she followed through on August 4.
Instituto Reação , a judo school based in Rio de Janeiro, was the happy recipient of the title belt from UFC190, and Rousey was all smiles when she handed the belt over to one of the instructors at the school. Rousey has trained with the students at Instituto Reação in the past, and one of the instructors there is an Olympic medalist in the sport, as she is. She also made headlines back in March when she donated $30,000 to the school.
There are those, however, who continue to doubt Rousey’s winning determination as a fighter and are eager to go head to head with her, particularly when she surprised everyone by beating Correia at the striking game during their matchup. Her boxing coach, Edmond Tarverdyan, has been quoted as saying that he believes Rousey could win the boxing world title and has never lost against male opponents during sparring training.
There are those that would dispute that claim, as is usually the case when someone seems as unbeatable as Rousey has been to this point since joining UFC in 2011. Layla McCarter , a former lightweight and junior welterweight champion noted, “She’s very good at what she does, but she needs to stay in her lane because boxing takes a lot of experience to reach the top level.”
For her part, Rousey has concentrated on the skills that she brings to every bout – particularly her laser-like focus and her self-confidence.
“I think that having that kind of belief in yourself is important to be the kind of level I’m trying to be,” she said.
There are those that have argued that Rousey is more of a trailblazer than she is a real champion, citing the relative newness of women’s MMA, and noting that during her Olympic tenure, she had not won a gold medal – only bronze at the 2008 Beijing Olympics , becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the sport, in addition to taking silver at the world judo championships. Rousey has said she has no wish to resume training for, say, the 2016 Rio Olympics, though she is eager to attend as a spectator.
For now, though, Rousey continues to surprise fans and naysayers alike. She also appears to be making seamless transitions from the world of MMA to movies and to writing; not only is she working on a film set currently, Variety announced a few days ago that Rousey’s best-selling book, My Fight, Your Fight, would be made into a film memoir and that Rousey would be starring in it. While there is no word as to a potential release date on the Rousey memoir, fans can look forward to see what further surprises Rousey will throw at them.
(Photo courtesy of TMZ.com)
