(Image via Ronda Rousey’s Facebook page)
Despite her relatively short time in the spotlight, Ronda Rousey is already a master manipulator of MMA media. From dissing shallow celebrities to floating her theories on pre-fight sex, Rousey has a way of making provocative statements that seem designed to get the MMA blogosphere churning out headlines. So keep in mind that this entire post is based on something that Ronda may have said only for the purposes of self-promotion. You’ve been warned.
Today’s eyebrow-raising Ronda-quote comes to us from MMAJunkie, who asked Rousey about her new acting career, which is starting with a role in The Expendables 3 and could continue with a supporting spot in Fast and Furious 7. As Rousey explained:
“I said from the beginning that I work in quadrennials,” Rousey told MMAjunkie.com. “I do four-year cycles. I think I’ve got two years left in me, realistically, if I’m going to do this like an Olympic run…
“I think one profession has a much-longer shelf life than the other,” Rousey said. “My last fight, I was kind of forced to face my mortality a little bit. I had an air of invincibility about me, and I was kind of forced to realize statistically there is a chance you could get permanently hurt or even die. There’s only so many times you can roll the dice.
“I am the best f—ing fighter in the world, and I truly believe that, but you’re still rolling the dice no matter who you are, so I do have to kind of set up an exit strategy. That’s what I did wrong in judo. I followed it all the way until the end, and I didn’t put any thought into after…
“I really want to do something special, and I really want to be the person that was able to do both (acting and fighting),” Rousey said. “When I feel like I’m done fighting, I’m done fighting. But I’m not done fighting yet. It’s still my priority, and I feel like if I can have three jobs on the side and still train and fight, then I can every once in a while go do a movie. I’ll still train while I’m there and then go fight.”
The obvious precedent here is Gina Carano, who used a film career as an exit strategy as soon as she took her first bad beating, and was also scooped up by the Fast & Furious series. (Wait a minute…are the F&F producers setting up a fictional fight between Gina and Ronda in the next installment? Clever.)
Still, two years doesn’t seem like a long time, especially when the UFC women’s bantamweight division still relies heavily on Rousey to generate interest. Let’s hope Ronda and Cris Cyborg can come to terms on a superfight while it’s still a possibility.