LOS ANGELES — Ronda Rousey has had some time to think about her actions toward Miesha Tate after Rousey defeated her rival at UFC 168.
The UFC women’s bantamweight champion’s conclusion: Despite withstanding a torrent of criticism, she’s not sorry she refused Tate’s handshake.
And further, Rousey believes the only reason Tate offered her hand at all after Rousey submitted her with an armbar in the third round on Dec. 28 was because the cameras were rolling.
“I really think that if me and her fought alone in her gym if there weren’t people there watching, she wouldn’t have offered her hand to me,” Rousey said at a Wednesday media luncheon. “Her actions were entirely influenced by being watched. My actions were all despite being watched.”
The way Rousey saw it, because her gut instinct was to refuse the handshake, if she had gone ahead and shook hands anyway, she would not be true to herself or her camp.
“It’s not a fakeable moment and it was entirely the right thing to do because I didn’t think about it,” Rousey said. “It was immediate. It was just like, ‘nope.’ Maybe if I took the time to think about it I would have changed my mind, but then it would have been the wrong decision, because it would have meant that my first inclination, I mean, I had that for a reason.”
Rousey, who says she couldn’t hear herself talk during her postfight interview as the jeers rained down from the crowd at the MGM Grand Garden arena, will never stop thinking she did the right thing.
“I stood my ground in a very difficult situation where I would be extremely criticized for doing so.”