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Sports See other Sports Articles Title: Caged: What Drives Ronda Rousey to Wake Up and Fight Caged: What Drives Ronda Rousey to Wake Up and Fight By Mary Pilon Nov 10, 2015 "When are we going to see women in the UFC, dude?" – TMZ cameraman "Never." – Dana White, president of Ultimate Fighting Championship, 2011 *** On a recent fall afternoon at New York's London Hotel, Ultimate Fighting Championship's first and current Women's Bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey, sat in a makeup chair considering sex and violence. She wondered whether the elderly enjoy the former more than young people (the conclusion was that they did) and, closer to her personal experience, how women in her profession were fighting stereotypes about female anger as much as they fought each other. "Women in combat sports challenge conventional ideas of what a real woman should be," she said as two hair-and-makeup specialists orbited around her, weaving her long hair into braids, painting her eyelids a smoky hue. No fewer than ten black bags of makeup were splayed around her as she sat in a plush cotton bathrobe, not the silk favored by fighters before a bout. "There's been a real resistance accepting the fact that there are no man roles or woman roles," she said. "There's what people can do. It's not divided into who can do it. I think fighting is one of those final frontiers, you know? The combat-sports world represents the end of that resistance." Elizabeth Griffin Rousey beats people up for a living and is very, very good at it. In a sport where women's involvement typically begins and ends with bikinis and scorecards, Rousey is now the highest-earning fighter–male or female–in the UFC. She is 12-0 and, out of the cage, maintains a growing acting career, including roles in The Expendables 3, Furious 7, and the film version of Entourage. Her November 14 fight against Holly Holm in Australia is expected to set mixed-martial-arts viewing records. She makes no apologies for appearing in the public eye without makeup, trash-talking her opponents, and not looking like "the other girls," in her words. She's dealt with opponents talking shit about her father's suicide, and has used the furor it instilled to fight better. She is completely comfortable with being cast in the role of the communicator of rage and has become a positive icon of female anger, a hero for a temperament too often ridiculed as "bitter" or "complainy." She paused as other handlers shuttled to and fro in the hotel room, glued to smartphones. A stylist had chosen a sleek black dress with a plunging neckline for her appearance that night on Jimmy Fallon, which she approved with a nod. She plays along with the charade, including days like today that are filled with photo shoots in four different designer dresses, smatterings of shoes, and concerns about flyaway hairs and sweat stains (though by her own admission, she's more comfortable in sweatpants than stilettos). "Being able to break into that world and to succeed represents real equality that we've all been pursuing for decades," she said. But perhaps what is more surprising isn't that she's now being embraced—it's that it took this long to happen. *** The ethics of MMA have always been called into question; Senator John McCain famously referred to it as "human cockfighting," and while some states have safety protocols and standards in play, the legal landscape is patchwork. (Boxing has had its critics as well, but that sport is often thought of with a sepia filter.) For women—given that their involvement in the UFC is a very recent development—the ethics conversation has been even newer. And, in spite of the tremendous strides women athletes have made in recent generations, female anger like Rousey's, depicted in her fight-poster snarls and her short, violent fights, is still considered by some to be discomforting. That, according to Rousey, is precisely the point. "We"—women—"have no outlet," Rousey said. "I feel very fortunate in that I got to make my outlet my profession." Dana White, president of the UFC, has a reputation that is often more lively than those of the fighters he oversees. He recently told me that he and others who initially resisted female combat sports don't dispute that women—like men—get angry. But seeing them express it, he said, is, on some level, still upsetting. Eric Williams/ewillphoto.com "I know this is sexist," White, now an emphatic supporter of Rousey's, said to me recently. "But I have to admit it: I look at women and they're beautiful. I didn't want to see a woman getting punched in the face. I never thought in my wildest dreams that women would get to the level of skill and talent they're at today. I never saw something like Ronda Rousey coming." Rousey doesn't lean in. She jabs, kicks, and punches in, making no apologies along the way. While countless women have competed in elite-level sports over the decades, only a handful like Rousey have popped into the mainstream, developing a fan base that is both male and female. Granted, 2015 has been a banner year for women in sports: In addition to Rousey's much-viewed win over Bethe Correia in August this year, Serena Williams helped the women's singles final at the U.S. Open gain more attention than the men's, even as her quest for a record-setting twenty-second Grand Slam was shut down in a stunning upset. The Women's World Cup game between the U.S. and Japan this summer was the most-watched soccer game in U.S. history. It's an effective backdrop for Rousey's rise, the fame coming a little later than many thought deserved, given that she's already an Olympic bronze medalist in judo. "When I went from amateur to professional sports," Rousey said, "I wasn't representing my country anymore. I was representing myself. And that ended up being the best thing I possibly could have done." I ask Rousey why she thinks her fame is exploding in 2015, especially since she's been a competitive athlete on the international stage for years. She had mentioned that after her defeat over Correia in August, "everything doubled,"—her social media following, sponsorship inquiries, her fame—overnight. Rousey had big wins in the past, but this time the stakes were higher, not only because of Rousey's fight record but also because of Correia's comments about her father's suicide. Rousey replied with a knockout, a fighter who wasn't just out for the win, but for domination and a clear message of revenge. Poster Comment: I guess Rousey fooled them. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread
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