Hold the Phone: Ronda Rousey’s Manager Refutes Alleged UFC Signing


(“Woah woah, Ronda, slow down. You can’t just waltz in off the street and demand to be in our crew. Fact is, you can’t join until you go through initiation.”) 

As us bloggers are apt to do when a pretty girl walks into the room, it looks like we may have prematurely shot our wad when we broke the historic news that Ronda Rousey had become the first woman to ever sign with the UFC. That’s correct, you’ve now read two semen-related puns in a row. And it’s only Monday. Anyway, Rousey’s manager recently spoke with ESPN to refute the claims:

“Right now, nothing has changed,” says Darin Harvey of Fight Tribe, noting that Rousey is in Las Vegas to fly with the Thunderbirds, the Air Force demonstration squadron, and not to sign a UFC contract.


(“Woah woah, Ronda, slow down. You can’t just waltz in off the street and demand to be in our crew. Fact is, you can’t join until you go through initiation.”) 

As us bloggers are apt to do when a pretty girl walks into the room, it looks like we may have prematurely shot our wad when we broke the historic news that Ronda Rousey had become the first woman to ever sign with the UFC. That’s correct, you’ve now read two semen-related puns in a row. And it’s only Monday. Anyway, Rousey’s manager recently spoke with ESPN to refute the claims:

“Right now, nothing has changed,” says Darin Harvey of Fight Tribe, noting that Rousey is in Las Vegas to fly with the Thunderbirds, the Air Force demonstration squadron, and not to sign a UFC contract.

While reports still indicate that Strikeforce will in fact be folding after their January 12th event, this is undeniably an interesting turn of events in the case of the supposed first UFC women’s champ. Although it did seem a little out of the blue when the news broke in the first place, you have to wonder if perhaps the UFC was hoping to keep things quiet until they made a formal announcement at a future event and simply let things slip through the cracks.

Adding to the confusion, Miesha Tate also announced via Twitter that she had joined the UFC, but then again, Tate also refuted the claims that she was hosting web chats with her fans, then immediately tweeted that she was in fact hosting web chats with her fans. Combine all that with DW’s well known history of tomfoolery and you’ll find yourself between a rock and a hard place, which is where this story currently lies.

But if I could take off my blogger suspenders and put on my conspiracy theorist tacktleneck for a moment, I would suggest that we should possibly watch UFC 154 with vested interest for an announcement of this magnitude. Dana White has yet to refute or confirm the rumors, and somehow managed to come off as both smug and coy by texting only an emoticon on his Twitter when the news broke. And as well all know, silent Dana is the most unpredictable Dana, so expect a major announcement on the horizon. Until then…Skyfall, anyone?

–J. Jones