Exclusive: Confident in Her Skill and Preparation for Tate, Rousey Not Even Entertaining the Notion She Could Lose
(Photo courtesy of Getty/ForzaLLC)
As we wind down this frenetic week of anticipation for arguably the biggest fight in WMMA history, Ronda Rousey is taking a load off and catching some much needed rest. Despite being run down from days that start at 5 a.m. and end well past the hours of normalcy, she is still generous with her time, and graciously granted CagePotato.com another interview, among a seemingly unending stream of Q&A requests ahead of her first MMA title bout Saturday night. The focal point is always the same from one interview to the next: Miesha Tate.
In this latest visit with the former Olympian, “Rowdy” discusses several more topics, including Tate’s striking, and the misconceptions some may have about her ability to go into the later rounds if need be.
Deep Water
“I think it’s just dumb that she assumes that my conditioning wouldn’t be very good. I’m an Olympic athlete, and before that I was a swimmer. I’ve been an athlete since I was six years old. To assume that I would gas out is dumb, and to assume that I have horrible striking is dumb. I think the only way that she can convince herself that she has a chance is to tell herself that everything that she hasn’t seen isn’t there. I think she’s so scared of that first exchange, because I’ve gotten everybody, so far, in that first exchange. I think she’s telling herself that once she gets past that first minute, that she’s safe, but that’s totally not the case.”
Tate’s Striking
“Her striking is not the least bit impressive, at all. Just look at their attempt to show any of her highlights. One highlight shows her hitting Marloes Coenen once, and then she loses her and falls against the cage. There’s another one where she tries to kick this one chick, and the other chick throws her. She doesn’t really have any striking to speak of. From what I’ve seen, it’s not impressive. It’s much less impressive than my absent striking that people haven’t seen.”
Strikeforce Marketing of This Fight
“I think it’s been great. I’m really happy with the job that Strikeforce and ZUFFA and Showtime have done. They’ve all done a fabulous job, and I hear that the ads are playing all the time. I think there are so many people that are excited to see this fight. I feel really lucky that they put out this amount of effort for one of my fights.”
Fighting On Emotion
“She’s never had to deal with any up front confrontation like this before. She’s never had to deal with the attention in a fight like this before. She’s never been the main event before, whereas I’ve been at the highest level of sports. I was in the Olympics twice, and I prepared my whole life for that. There’s no way to replicate that amount of pressure. This is a fight that entered my mind a few months ago. We trained and we talked and now we’re going to fight. It’s not like something I was aspiring toward since I was a little girl, and now it’s coming down to one day. It pales in comparison. I’m definitely going to deal with the pressure and the attention much more easily than she is.”
Pressure (or lack thereof) of being a 4 to 1 Favorite
“It’s more pressure to her, because now she knows that pretty much everyone thinks she’s going to lose. Psychologically, that’s got to impact you. She’s already come out and said ‘Oh, if I lose I’m thinking about changing my weight class’ or ‘I think taking the modest approach, it’s easier to lose.’ I don’t even entertain the possibility that I could lose, and she’s already setting herself up to fall.”
Even amid the onset of a much needed nap, the confidence Rousey exudes is almost palpable. She is as cool as a cucumber in this final stretch of the countdown to Saturday, and definitely has her eyes on the prize. When asked, in closing, if she was prepared to be the new face of women’s MMA, should she win. Without missing a beat, and absent of any hesitation, she replied, “I’m prepared for anything. I’m Ronda Freakin’ Rousey.”
Follow Ronda via her Twitter @RondaRousey.
