Champion of UFC and women’s body positivity, Ronda Rousey, is—sadly—well-versed in dealing with body-shaming flogs. In July this year, Rousey opened up about dicks who have such precious little going on in their lives, they take to criticising an athlete’s body instead. At the time, Rousey said:
“Just because my body was developed for a purpose other than fucking millionaires, doesn’t mean it’s masculine, I think it’s femininely bad-ass as fuck, because there’s not a single muscle on my body that isn’t used for a purpose.”
Overnight, the New York Times published an extensive feature interview with Rousey, touching on her fledgling career in Hollywood, her turnaround from Judo to MMA post-Beijing Olympics, the suicide of her father at a young age, and the body-shaming critics she’s encountered while doing commercial work.
Recounting an incident where “someone said something really rude to me” at a fitting for a TV commercial, Rousey said she purposely put on more weight for the role, saying, “I was heavier just to make a point.”
Ronda Rousey added that dissing her isn’t an option, saying, “If anyone calls me fat one more time in my life, I’m going to kill them.”
Rousey also defended her work on the covers of magazine’s targeted towards men.
“If I can represent that body type of women that isn’t represented so much in media, then I’d be happy to do that. When women say that going on publications directed at men is somehow demeaning, I don’t think that’s true. I think that’s one really effective way to change the societal standard women are held to.”
The UFC fighter is set to take on Holly Holm in a likely history-making fight at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne next month. On Fallon this week, Rousey claimed the fight would last longer than her usual pulverisation of her opponents – as Holm is her biggest threat to date.
Read Rousey’s interview with the New York Times here.
Lead image by Frazer Harrison via Getty.
