First things first: Ronda Rousey wasn’t exactly thrilled to have her UFC bantamweight title defense against Cat Zingano shifted from Jan. 3 to Feb. 28.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Rousey said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour. “But there was really nothing I could do about it. I just show up and fight when they tell me to show up and fight, and I show up and win, and that’s it. Who it is and what it is is outside of my control, so I can’t really invest too much of my happiness in it.”
But it didn’t take the champion long to see the silver lining in the situation. By fighting at UFC 184, she has a chance to be one of the featured names on the marquee at the West Coast’s glamor arena, one that just happens to double as her hometown venue: Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
Rousey says this is a day she’s been looking forward to since she was tending bar in one of LA’s less desirable districts in order to make ends meet.
“It has always been a dream of mine to fight at Staples Center, and so that is the silver lining,” Rousey said. “I always want to do the Staples Center, I remember they days when I was cocktail waitressing and I was watching the Lakers play on TV and being like, man, I wonder if things would be different if, like, Luke Walton walked in here and asked me out and I would never have to cocktail waitress again. I was sitting there on a shady bar on Crenshaw thinking like, if the third-string player on the Lakers asked me my life would be different. And now I’m going to be one of the headliners at the Staples Center, it’s pretty ridiculous. It feels special, it really does.”
While much has been made of the fact Rousey is taking co-main event billing instead of headlining the show, she says this is a non-issue.
“Oh no, not at all, If I could be co-main the rest of my life, I’d love that,” Rousey said. “Do you know how much less work I have to do as the co-main event?”
And besides, UFC 184 will mark the third time Rousey and UFC middleweight champion Chris Weidman have shared a bill. They’re a combined 4-0 when they share the bill, as they done at UFC 168 and UFC 175.
“Me and Chris Weidman? We have great luck together,” Rousey said. “Whenever we fight on the card, we kill it. So I’m happy to be on the card with Chris.”