LOS ANGELES — Ronda Rousey might be making movies, but that doesn’t mean she’ll be leaving MMA any time soon.
Rousey’s mother, AnnMaria De Mars, weighed in on that topic Saturday after her daughter’s 14-second win over Cat Zingano at UFC 184.
“There’s always another challenge,” De Mars said. “I was just telling her sister, [Rousey] won the junior world finals in four seconds and she said, ‘How much better can I do than four seconds?’ I said: ‘Three.'”
Maybe Rousey (11-0) has gotten to the point where she’s competing with herself. The UFC women’s bantamweight champion finished Sara McMann with a knee to the liver in 66 seconds in February 2014. Last July, Rousey knocked out Alexis Davis in 16 seconds. And, of course, she was two seconds better against Zingano. After Zingano rushed her to start the fight, Rousey flipped her over on her back and applied an armbar as she tried to twist away.
Rousey, 28, might make it look easy. She has finished every fight, including all but one in the first round. But that doesn’t mean her drive to win will decrease at all, according to her mother.
“This girl across from Ronda is trying to take away everything Ronda has,” De Mars said. “The title, her money, her reputation — she’s undefeated. That girl is trying to take away everything she has and there’s never a day that’s going to be OK.”
While it seems like the potential opponents in the division are dwindling, De Mars disagrees. She doesn’t think Rousey has any lack of challenges up ahead after filming her new movie, “Mile 22,” in May.
“There’s Holly Holm,” De Mara said. “There’s Bethe Correia. There’s a lot of people. I would just line them up.”
There’s also Cris “Cyborg” Justino, who is currently in negotiations with the UFC for a superfight with Rousey. The caveat with her is that she has never made Rousey’s 135-pound division, fighting most of her entire career at 145. Justino knocked out Charmaine Tweet in 46 seconds in the main event of Invicta FC 11 on Friday night in LA.
Rousey seems indifferent to a fight against Justino, who would be her toughest opponent and is likely the second best women’s fighter on Earth. “Cyborg” has said it would be very difficult to make the weight. She also has a history of performance-enhancing drug use, something that drives Rousey crazy. There’s no chance Rousey will move up and fight Justino at a catchweight, De Mars said.
“What kind of sport makes up rules for one person?” De Mars said. “That’s a bunch of bullsh*t. So no, she should not do drugs and she should cut weight. Why do people make up that stupid bullsh*t over and over? Why do you think the rules only apply to one person?”
Rousey said in a recent interview with Conan O’Brien that one of her main motivations is that she never won the Olympic gold medal in judo, instead taking home the bronze in 2008. De Mars, a judo champion herself, thinks can understand that.
“I think that’s true of everybody who is a really top athlete — there always has to be something missing,” De Mars said. “Because once you feel like ‘I’ve done it, I’m satisfied,’ then … you don’t have that thing anymore. There has to be something that makes you think, ‘You are not taking this way from me.’
“I think if she had won the Olympics a couple of times, been satisfied, she’d probably be in graduate school right now, doing something else.”
So, Rousey might be the undisputed champion, the best women’s fighter in the world and an impossible challenge for anyone currently in the division. But that doesn’t mean she’s going to stop any time soon. Rousey said before UFC 184 that she would hang the gloves up when she feels like she’s the best MMA athlete on the planet — regardless of gender.
“She fights every fight like her little sister’s life depended on it,” De Mars said. “That’s how she feels every day.”