Ronda Rousey didn’t want her match against Cat Zingano to be moved.
In the last few weeks, Dana White and company have had to make major card changes to account for various headliners (including champions Jon ‘Bones’ Jones, Cain Velasquez, and Chris Weidman) all suffering injuries during their training camps. As a result, Rousey’s next title defence was moved from January 3rd to February 28 where she will co-headline the card that features a middleweight showdown between the aforementioned Weidman and rival Vitor Belfort.
“I wasn’t happy about it,” Rousey said on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour, in regards to having her match pushed. “But there was really nothing I could do about it. I just show up and fight when they tell me to show up and fight, and I show up and win, and that’s it. Who it is and what it is is outside of my control, so I can’t really invest too much of my happiness in it.”
Rousey said that the major pro of the switch is the fact that UFC 184 will take place in Los Angeles at the Staples Center (her hometown).
“It has always been a dream of mine to fight at Staples Center, and so that is the silver lining,” Rousey said. “I always want to do the Staples Center, I remember they days when I was cocktail waitressing and I was watching the Lakers play on TV and being like, man, I wonder if things would be different if, like, Luke Walton walked in here and asked me out and I would never have to cocktail waitress again. I was sitting there on a shady bar on Crenshaw thinking like, if the third-string player on the Lakers asked me my life would be different. And now I’m going to be one of the headliners at the Staples Center, it’s pretty ridiculous. It feels special, it really does.”
In addition, Rousey is 4-0 when fighting alongside Chris Weidman. Both American fighters won their matches at UFC 168 and UFC 175.
“Me and Chris Weidman? We have great luck together,” Rousey said. “Whenever we fight on the card, we kill it. So I’m happy to be on the card with Chris.”
