Ronda Rousey Talks Armbars, Dating, & Getting Punched In the Face

I don’t think there is a fighter in the UFC that gets more mainstream publicity these days than Ronda Rousey. The UFC champion was recently interviewed for Esquire’s What I’ve Learned series and talked about a variety of topics including dating fighters, armbars, and getting punched in the face.

[adinserter block=”1″]Rousey has certainly turned into the most media-friendly fighter in all of UFC. Quite frankly her notoriety still baffles me as there are plenty of pretty female MMA fighters yet none have gotten the attention that Rousey receives. Whether this results in any kind of backlash from UFC fans will be determined by the final numbers for her debut at UFC 157.

Rousey closes out her biggest year ever in MMA with a fun interview at Esquire.com. I actually came away from this interview liking Rousey a bit more than her usual interviews. Typically I find her interviews to be obnoxious but I found her to be sincere, engaging, and candid with Esquire’s “What I learned” interview.

Rousey is asked about armbars and what it is like to be arm-barred.

“I’ve been arm-barred and I let my arm be broken, and I didn’t tap, and I got out, and I still won that fight. F*ck ’em. I don’t care. An arm bar isn’t the end for me. The ligaments in both my elbows are so loose my arms just dislocate sometimes, just randomly. Because I’ve experienced it, I don’t fear it at all. It’s the people who haven’t been arm-barred who have that fear.”

Rousey isn’t shy about sex and probably talks more about it in interviews than any other fighter. So you shouldn’t be surprised to hear her talk sex in regards to what she learned in 2012.

“It’s really funny, actually. I either get men coming up to me like, “Oh, my God, baby, I love you!” or else they’re too shy to approach me. Can I get just a little in between?

Hell no, I ain’t gonna hook up with no fighter. I know these guys. They’re like a sewing circle and everyone tells everyone everything.”

Rousey also talks about her transition from judo to MMA, specifically getting punched in the face.

[adinserter block=”2″]“When I left judo and went into MMA, everyone was saying, “How’s she gonna react to getting punched in the face?” And I was thinking, You don’t understand. In judo, those girls would punch you straight in the face all the time. They’d pretend to go for a grip and just punch you. Grab you by the collar and hit you over and over again. If you watch the fight I lost at the Olympics, you’ll see that girl punched me in the face twenty times. I know what it’s like to get punched in the face. At this point, I’m conditioned to ignore it. I don’t skip a beat.”

Check out the entire interview over at Esquire.com. It’s a good one!

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