Miesha Tate vs. Ronda Rousey at Strikeforce: Columbus March 3rd

bobbitt15 wrote:

Ronda posted a picture on her twitter today telling miesha to quit being a bitch and man the fuck up. It was pretty funny

Ronda Rousey
@RondaRousey
@MieshaTate pic.twitter.com/zFh0YSo3

yo that's hilarious.

LMAO, nice play RR, nice play

http://www.bloodyelbow.com/2012/2/1/2764384/ronda-rousey-sounds-off-on-everything-from-the-olympics-to-cristiane
The interview started out innocuous enough until Sherwood asked her about her favorite 145 lb champion, Cristiane Santos (on whether or not Cyborg was good or bad for female MMA):

"She was a detriment to women's MMA. No little girl is going to watch cris cyborg fight and want to be like her one day. I don't think it's a good example. I think it was obvious all along that she was doping, and I think it sends a bad message to kids that you need to dope in order to be achampion. I think it's better with her gone."

While her logic might not be questionable, the "if it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck" line of thinking was nonetheless validated in the wake of Cyborg's positive test. Incapable of ruffling the feathers of just the disgraced ex-champ, Rousey didn't stop there, taking a thinly veiled shot at Miesha Tate...

"There's a reason why the Olympics is every four years. It's because if they had it every year, they would go bankrupt. The Olympics is the epitome of sport and that's where it's all just about the sport. But with professional sports it's about entertainment. It's about making money. The core of everything is still about the sport, but that's not everything it's about. It's hilarious when these girls are ‘you talked yourself into a title shot!' What you're really saying in a mean way is that I'm smarter than all of you, and I actually have an understanding of how this works and used it to my advantage. "

...nor did Rousey avoid leaving the ring-card-girl-stone unturned...

"There's a reason why the ring girls aren't asked to star in movies, and it's because they're pretty but talentless."

For context, Rousey was responding to a question about Gina Carano, who Rousey has the utmost respect for, and who she attributes some of her success to. However, Ronda's most scathing attack was directed at the Olympics.

Star-divide

Everyone talks about how awesome the Olympics are, but you know what? After the Olympics they give you ten grand a handshake. And you know what, it costs way more than ten grand to get there. The Olympics didn't give a damn about me after I was done. And I gotta do what I gotta do to make a living. If I gotta pose for some magazines...I'm not gonna show my nipples or asshole or anything like that but if I gotta walk around at the beach in a bikini, why not let someone take a picture of me and put it in a magazine?

...

All these companies make millions and millions of dollars to put the Olympic rings as like a logo. I walked into 24 hour fitness the other day. They're a multi-million dollar sponsor of the Olympic games. And they have all these Olympic rings all over the place. They know I'm an Olympic medalist. They know I'm an Olympian. They will not let me in there without paying. I have to pay to go into 24 hour fitness. I have to buy every single Gatorade bottle. That money does not go to the athletes. That money goes into a lot of really corrupt national governing bodies that bounce that money around, they give it to all their friends, and almost none of that money makes it to the athletes. USA Judo is the most corrupt organizations ever, and they hated me because I was not afraid to say it, and they always gave me as little funding as possible.

At the 2007 worlds they sent more officials and more people from their organization, and then they made most of the athletes pay for themselves to go. They only sponsorerd three athletes to go, and they sent like eleven different people. And I remember at the Pan Am games, or Pan-Am champsionships in wherever we were at, a bunch of the athletes had to pay for themselves to go and then they flew some PR girl at the last minute. Thousands of dollars just to show up and hang around. And they're sending all their people first class, and they're spending all this, you look at their budget and they're spending thousands of dollars on entertainment for each other. All the people that work for this organization are sitting in these amazing hotels, and the athletes, I'm sitting in a hut. A chalet in the middle of Belgium.

All that money and none of it goes to the athletes, and the second that you're done fighting they just give you a kick in the ass out the door. There's nothing set in place to help the athletes after they're done. What are you doing while you're training your whole life? You're not getting as much education as you could. You're not getting as much work experience as you could. And so what happens after the Olympics Is that you have all these athletes that have no work experience, no education, and they have no health. And it's all bullshit.

And that's why I'm like screw everyone's idea of 'oh what sports are supposed to be like'. I did what sports were supposed to be like, and I was living in my car. So you know what, fine. I'm gonna talk a bunch of shit. I'm gonna pose in a couple of pictures. And I'm gonna break a couple of girl's arms, and I'm not gonna feel the least bit sorry about it because you know what? At least I can feed my dog.

She wont show her nipples or asshole, but has no problems flexing her nuts.

http://www.mmamania.com/2012/2/6/2776483/miesha-tate-motivated-fight-delusional-ronda-rousey-march-3-ohio-mma

According to Tate, she's not bothered by the banter. It just adds more fuel to her fire:

"I don't really listen to much of anything that Ronda says. I don't watch her interviews. I get a little bit of that drift that comes through Twitter. When people say, 'Oh, you know she said this, she said that.' Half the time, I honestly think it just makes her sound like an idiot. I mean, that's just being brutally honest. I think she's pretty delusional. I have yet to see Ronda actually fight. I've seen her go out there and do her Judo and whatnot. But she hasn't ever actually brought a fight and that's what I'm gonna make her do...fight. Anything that she says is motivation, definitely."

Everyone knows Rousey has ridiculous judo, jiu-jitsu and submission skills. Tate comes from a wrestling background, but she believes it's more than just her wrestling that gives her the edge:

"That's why this fight makes for an interesting match up, because our strengths are in similar areas. We're both really great on the ground. I have wrestling, she has judo. I also feel like I have the edge on the feet and the experience overall. I've been doing this a lot longer. I feel like I'll be able to put it together better. When it comes to mixing everything and meshing it, it's gonna make for an awesome fight. I think people are really gonna enjoy and be entertained."

On top of what she believes is a skill set advantage, "Takedown" also sees problems for Rousey that will be caused by her having to make the weight cut to 135 pounds; a reduction she's never had to make before in her MMA career:

"Yeah and not to mention the weight cut. This is her first drop to 135. Also, no pound allowance. That's gonna change her body dynamics, the way she's used to throwing people around, having that weight behind her is gonna change. So it could even affect her in her training camp. The people she used to throw around...she's gonna be smaller. So, a lot of things are gonna be changing for her, this fight. We're gonna see how that works for her. I just wanna frustrate her. Push her outside that minute and make her second guess and make her wish she never wanted to take this fight."

Of course she wants to win for herself and for the sake of successfully defending her recently acquired belt, but she also realizes that this fight is bigger than just her. It's bigger than Ronda Rousey. It's bigger than any of that.

It's about putting WMMA on the map and maybe sending a message to UFC President Dana White in the process:

"It's a huge opportunity. If the women can deliver, like I believe we're going to, it can say big things for our future -- not only in Strikeforce, but hopefully, eventually in the UFC."

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