Ronda Rousey fans can catch a glimpse of her this month before UFC 184.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champion will be featured in Sports Illustrated’s popular annual Swimsuit Issue, which hits newsstands Monday. Rousey defends her title against Cat Zingano at UFC 184 on Feb. 28 in Los Angeles.
Get an exclusive look at @RondaRousey from the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition http://t.co/c5qrsUTEEC #UFC pic.twitter.com/4HsUYVT9UO
— Haymaker (@HaymakerBlog) February 9, 2015
SI posted more pictures and video from Rousey’s photo shoot here.
The undefeated Rousey (10-0), a former Olympic judo bronze medalist, has already appeared in ESPN’s The Body Issue and has parts in two movies coming out in the next four months: Fast and Furious 7 and Entourage. She made her silver-screen debut last year in The Expendables 3.
“The media directed at men with women is what women pay attention to the most,” Rousey told For The Win. “When it came to what standard I gave myself growing up and what I thought that I should look like, I was looking at the women that I could see the men I wanted found attractive. I thought if this is what the guys I like, then I should look like that. The ‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Issue wasn’t like ‘Playboy’ or all those others. It wasn’t so fake and plastic.”
Rousey, 28, is coming off a 16-second knockout win over Alexis Davis at UFC 175 last July. “Rowdy” has quickly risen to become one of the most well-known MMA fighters in the world.
Rousey talked to FTW about the difference between the Body Issue and SI’s Swimsuit Issue.
“The ESPN Body Issue is about celebrating the peak of human potential and the kind of form the human body, when specialized, can really look like. The Swimsuit Issue has a lot more [of a] sexual side to it, while I don’t think the Body Issue is overtly sexual whereas Sports Illustrated is,” Rousey said. “The difference in how I approached it is when I posed for ESPN Body, I really tried to be a lot more cut and a lot more close to my prime fighting shape because I was being photographed as a fighter and trying to look more like a fighter.
“I purposely tried to get a little bit heavier for the SI issue so I was a little bit curvier and not in top fight shape look but the look at which I feel I’m the most attractive. It’s very natural for a person’s body to go through seasons.”