Won't Fight Man
Won't Fight Man, AUSTIN, Tex. -- Ronda Rousey isn't just a champion in the Octagon. She hopes to inspire girls and women compete in whatever ring they enter.
She, UFC president Dana White and fellow female fighter Jessica Eye took the stage here at SXSport for a discussion with ESPN senior writer Allison Glock to talk about women's strides in the sport.
Rousey recalled how UFC's beginnings were macho mens-only two guys in a bar and they paid them to go fight. Now it's like completely switched," she said. "I would say we are revolutionizing what is possible for women in pop culture, in general. If (mixed martial arts) can change, we can change every other facet of society that women aren't accepted (in)."
After becoming the first woman to join the UFC in 2012, Rousey has remained the women's bantamweight champion. She won her last match Feb. 28 in 14 seconds.
White agrees that things have changed fast. Now the UFC has 60 women fighters signed "and they are all good," he said.
Rousey's success and subsequent interest in women fighters, he said, "is changing the perception of women, not just how women look at them but how we look at women now and how little girls look at what the possibilities are."
When Glock asked Rousey about her status as a role model, she deferred saying, "I never like calling myself a role model. I try to be best the best I can for my little sister and my nieces," she said. "But I'm never going to say that. The way I'm received is outside my control. I try not to think too much about every single little thing that I do."
Girls don't have to become fighters, Rousey said, but she hopes her success lets "every girl see that because something is perceived as a guys' thing doesn't mean it's not for them."Jessica Eye agrees. "The confidence that she brings, it explodes in other people and it's going to create an epidemic in other females," Eye said. "Even if it's not in fighting they are going to ask that boy out or they are going to do great on that test. Because of her confidence they find how it applies to them."
A boisterous crowd gave rounds of applause several times during the panel. When one member of the crowd asked Rousey what she would do next since she had decimated the other UFC women, Eye took offense.
She, UFC president Dana White and fellow female fighter Jessica Eye took the stage here at SXSport for a discussion with ESPN senior writer Allison Glock to talk about women's strides in the sport.
Rousey recalled how UFC's beginnings were macho mens-only two guys in a bar and they paid them to go fight. Now it's like completely switched," she said. "I would say we are revolutionizing what is possible for women in pop culture, in general. If (mixed martial arts) can change, we can change every other facet of society that women aren't accepted (in)."
After becoming the first woman to join the UFC in 2012, Rousey has remained the women's bantamweight champion. She won her last match Feb. 28 in 14 seconds.
White agrees that things have changed fast. Now the UFC has 60 women fighters signed "and they are all good," he said.
Rousey's success and subsequent interest in women fighters, he said, "is changing the perception of women, not just how women look at them but how we look at women now and how little girls look at what the possibilities are."
When Glock asked Rousey about her status as a role model, she deferred saying, "I never like calling myself a role model. I try to be best the best I can for my little sister and my nieces," she said. "But I'm never going to say that. The way I'm received is outside my control. I try not to think too much about every single little thing that I do."
Girls don't have to become fighters, Rousey said, but she hopes her success lets "every girl see that because something is perceived as a guys' thing doesn't mean it's not for them."Jessica Eye agrees. "The confidence that she brings, it explodes in other people and it's going to create an epidemic in other females," Eye said. "Even if it's not in fighting they are going to ask that boy out or they are going to do great on that test. Because of her confidence they find how it applies to them."
A boisterous crowd gave rounds of applause several times during the panel. When one member of the crowd asked Rousey what she would do next since she had decimated the other UFC women, Eye took offense.
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Won't Fight Man
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