Ronda Rousey and Gina Carano: A pivotal moment for MMA's future

I didn't realize in all the ceiling busting that I had created one, and I saw that and I was like, oh my god, that's the record? We should blow the hell out of that record. So you really took matters into your own hands with that. You were like, this will break records if I do this. This has the potential to be the most viewed MMA fight of all time, men or women. Welcome to Barrier Breakers. Today I am sitting down with an Olympic bronze medalist, a UFC Hall of Famer, the first UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, and one of the most influential pioneers in women's combat sports, Ronda Rousey. Welcome to the show. Hi, and you forgot. Give it to me. The first main event for WrestleMania for women in history. Queen of the Andals, Breaker of Chains, and Mother of Dragons. There's more in there. Listen, there was too many to name. I had to pick four, and you gave me the rest. So thank you for adding that in there. Obviously, you went into WWE and acting. What was that transition like? And what did it make you feel like, obviously, going from an athlete to then kind of being more of an actress? I feel like MMA was a good segue because being purely an athlete was doing Judo Olympics. Being an athlete that also has to entertain was MMA and having to learn how to be on camera and stuff like that, which I used to be petrified of public speaking oh yeah then that was kind of like a good segue and then I started acting more in like action films and stuff like that or I could like do fight choreography and things like that and that kind of like segued me into pro wrestling which I feel like is the purest form of fight choreography right and you were the first woman to sign a UFC contract ever it was a first step and it was an experiment and it was a lot of pressure so now I'm returning back to MMA with everything that I learned from pro wrestling and how to promote and be a promoter because that's basically what pro wrestling is it's just like playing into like the fictional promotional part so when you were growing up who did you look up to in the space since there weren't really any women there for you to look up to I mean there was in my living room my mom was the first American to win the world championships in judo while she was a single mother working as an engineer in the 80s while she was getting her PhD this was after she got a perfect score in the SATs and graduated college at 19 like she's just like an incredible human and person to look up to so I was seeing her lose her keys every five seconds so I was like if she can do it I could do it that's amazing like to have somebody like that in your corner to just help fuel your dreams is like really special so that's cool shout out to your mom so what moment do you think truly shifted how women's MMA was viewed oh god I think the the first big step was when I won my first title in Strikeforce it wasn't the UFC it wasn't a men's fight and it was the biggest fight at the time. It became the talk of the industry. The next fight that I had defending the title, there wasn't nearly the same amount of drama and we exceeded the views of the previous fight. And that's when the UFC was like, okay, this isn't just a flash in the pan. This isn't a one-off. This is the beginning of something. My first fight in the UFC, it was an experiment. It was not like, oh, this is what the way it's going to be forever. It was, we're going to see how this goes. And if this goes great, then maybe this is the way we'll do it forever that event was a huge success and then it was undeniable i feel like you've truly hit every like avenue of the space which is just so incredible when did you realize Ronda that you were becoming the face of women's combat sports after Gina Carano left MMA to go into Hollywood there was no face there needed to be a face in order for women's MMA to continue in order for us to get into the UFC. It was my goal to become that in a different way than Gina, much more as a disruptor than as the baby face that she is. It was the goal because it was a tool that I had to use to get us to where we needed to get. You've obviously stepped away for 10 years now. So when you were presented with this opportunity, what was that feeling like? Were you like, I wasn't presented with the opportunity. Really? This came from me sitting on an office chair while I was nine months pregnant, watching an interview of Gina Carano. There had been kind of a cascade of events that had planted the seed in my mind of a comeback. Largely, it was Mike Tyson's comeback on Netflix and him coming back at 60 and breaking the record for the most viewed combat sports event of all time, 108 million live views. I realized that, wow, this isn't like a nostalgic event. This isn't a money grab. This is something legitimate. This is the biggest thing in the sport right now. Netflix did a boxing event with Amanda Serrano they were talking about oh Amanda's breaking Rhonda's record for the highest purse ever I didn't realize in all the ceiling busting that I had created one and I saw that and I was like oh my god that's the record we should blow the hell out of that record and so that those are kind of like these things in my mind I'm like oh man I could totally beat that record right now you know the one person that I ever thought that I would come back for it was Gina and then when I saw that interview while I was massively pregnant that was kind of like the last straw this is an idea as time has come so you really took matters into your own hands with that you were like this will break records if i do this all this happened because nine month pregnant chick had an idea the fight on may 16th against gina carano what is your relationship like with her well i'm trying my very best not to be friends she's just incredibly charming she's my hero she's my inspiration for coming into mma in the first place this whole process just really brought us so much closer together because we always had a mutual respect before we just kind of passed each other like ships in the night in MMA throughout this whole process and how kind of like arduous it was and how many obstacles we had to face and how we really had to fight to fight each other she is just like an incredible person and I'm so glad that we're both getting this opportunity together and I'm so glad that I'm fighting someone that I actually enjoy talking about yep yep that makes the job a lot easier at that point we had to be like okay we can't talk anymore we need to cut this out I'm going I'm going into kill mode I really hope that after this we can be friends which is like the weirdest way to go about it you and Gina obviously both being pioneers in the space what does this fight mean to you this fight is so much bigger than me and Gina and it represents a movement in the sport and basically a revolution of the fighters taking their power back and demanding to be paid fairly and to be treated like partners and not commodities we're on the the biggest platform in the world we have the biggest stars in the sport and we need to deliver we are expected to break the record for the most viewed MMA fight of all time right I feel like that's what this fight is going to be on Netflix Netflix is really venturing into MMA for the first time and taking a chance on us this has the potential to be the most viewed MMA fight of all time man or women one thing I I'm really proud of with this card is the the minimum pay for the fight if you walk out losing the minimum you're going to get is forty thousand dollars if you have two fights like that in a year I mean that's living wage in California and that's not something that UFC can say by several orders of magnitude what do you want younger girls who look up to all your amazing accolades and just look up to you in general to take away from something like this there doesn't have to already be an opportunity existing for you to create one for yourself that's kind of why me and Gina were in the unique position to make this event happen because we have done that before she was the first ever sanctioned women's MMA fight in Nevada she saw something that wasn't there and said I'm going to do it first I saw that there was no women in the UFC that no woman had headlined WrestleMania and i said that i'm going to do it first no woman had you know medaled in the Olympics in judo from the USA and I said I'm going to do it first when we were reaching all these obstacles trying to fight each other we're like you know what we're going to take the initiative and create something that doesn't exist basically lead all of these incredible fighters on this card that have been like basically like the lost boys of the UFC that that the UFC just turned them away and said well what are you going to do we're the only gig in town what are you going to do I think that we were the catalyst that was able to bring everybody together and be like, you know what, we're going to show you what we're going to do. What do you want your legacy to be? Oh, my legacy is my kids. Oh, yeah. I got I got four kids. My two boys are off in college right now. My two girls are four and 14 months. Do we see them doing anything in like MMA? Are they into it? I mean, the boys are really into football. Okay. Which I'm like, okay, it pays way better to go that way. but i i feel like all of them should know how to fight in order to like as a survival skill just like swimming their mom's a badass so they might as well you know try it out dad's no slouch either i mean and the funny thing is he was like i don't know maybe they shouldn't be athletes it just it's a lot of time like oh my god like are you kidding me i'm like like your eyes they have how could you not they're gonna end up all being musicians then you have a little band behind you so you know that wouldn't be the worst but i'd be percussionist or something at least a little bit athletic it was so fun getting to sit down with Ronda Rousey today for more content like this please like share and subscribe only on Whistle and make sure you don't miss Rousey versus Corano May 16th only on Netflix how are you feeling oh fantastic great when you look back on your career what feeling comes up for you first i'll look back man i'm kind of tired i'm like man i'm glad i did that because i do not feel like doing it again Yeah.