(Video courtesy of AOL)
When Gina Carano quietly slipped away from MMA for two years, many thought that Strikeforce was grooming Ronda Rousey to be the next face of women’s MMA.
Last weekend “Rowdy” Rousey spoke with Ariel Helwani about a variety of subjects and the outspoken decorated judoka who faces Julia Budd later this month had a lot to say on what makes women marketable in the sport among other topics.
Here’s what Miss Rousey had to say about:
Her submission win over Sarah D’Alelio in her last bout:
“She was screaming and I could actually feel her arm popping out and if you dislocate someone’s arm [with an armbar] it’s actually in the most sensitive area of your body. So if you’re implying that I’m imagining sensations in that area, then we have another argument on our hands. I thought she was yelling, ‘Tap, tap!’ as loud as she could.Other people told me they heard that too. She said she was just yelling out, but they tell you right before you walk in that anything verbal during the submission is a verbal submission. It counts as tapping. I thought she couldn’t tap because she was falling forward and using her arm to catch herself. I think if she could have tapped she would [have].”
What makes her a marketable commodity:
“Well I’m doing the best to be as marketable as possible… I’m training as hard as possible. I want to have an exciting style — not just to win matches, but to win them impressively. And I took the time to do my hair and nails and make-up today. You have to do everything that you can to make it interesting. I think that if you want to bring in new fans you really have to play up that entertainment aspect. If the fan’s already there, they’re going to start appreciating you and the actual skill and athleticism that goes into fighting. To bring people in you’ve got to show them something bright and shiny at first to get them to look. Then it’s the skill and true sportsmanship that gets them to stay.”
Her recent trend of putting out video blogs with deceiving titles like “RONDA ROUSEY UNEDITED SEX VIDEO.”
“I just kind of think that if an unedited sex video comes out later, then people just won’t believe the title and they won’t click on it, so then I’ll get away with it. I’m just saying it’s a possibility I’m prepared for.”
Her short and long term goals in the sport:
“I’ve only been doing MMA for one year and I’ve had six fights in 12 months. I would like to have five or six more professional fights before I went for a title. Miesha Tate did kinda call me out on Twitter, so I’m considering getting some extra fights down at 135 and slapping that title out of her hands, first and then grabbing the other one second and hopefully unifying the two divisions.”
Her thoughts on fighting Carano at this point in her young career:
“I would fight her today, for sure. I don’t think she would want to fight me right away. I think we’d both be better off if she came back and had a couple really good impressive looking wins first, and then let me beat her later.”
Just two weeks after notching a win in her 
The