SHE has a professional MMA record of 12-0, is the winner of an Olympic bronze medal in Judo, and has spent a grand total of just 2 minutes and 10 seconds in the octagon during her last four fights — and Ronda Rousey is still not satisfied.
The undefeated bantamweight champion told UFC commentator Joe Rogan on his podcast ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ that she felt her career was “unfinishedâ€.
In discussing her MMA career heading toward its twilight years, Rousey acknowledged the hype around a potential bout against Cristiane “Cyborg†Justino, saying that particular fight would go a long way in helping her round out her career.
“It just seems unfinished — my career, there’s more left to do — I don’t feel like I’m done yet,†she said.
“With the Olympics it’s just like, you win an Olympic gold medal and you’re done. With the UFC, when am I really done? I’m not. It feels unfinished still. (The ‘Cyborg’ fight) definitely would (help).â€
And at 28 years of age, if that fight is to ever occur it will need to be scheduled in the forseeable future, as Rousey said she has no intentions of fighting past the age of 30.
“I’m not going to be doing this in my 30s; I don’t want to be fighting in my 30s,†Rousey said. “By 30s, I mean like 31, 32. If you’re actually 30 years old that’s 30, not 30s. I’m 28. I don’t know.
“I don’t look at these separate disjointed things. I’m not going to go in there and try this thing and try that thing and hope something works out.â€
Despite Rousey’s next fight already locked in for the powerful striker Holly Holm on November 14, the possibility of a fight against ‘Cyborg’ is Rousey’s most in-demand contest among fans.
However with Ronda currently fighting in the 61kg category, both UFC President Dana White and Rousey have said the Brazilian will need to drop at least 5kg if the bout is to ever become a reality.
And while Rousey said she has no proof, that didn’t stop the former Olympian from taking a stab at her potential competitor, accusing the 30-year-old of still using performance enhancing drugs — Justino had her MMA licence suspended after testing positive to steroids in 2011.
“The thing is, someone who uses steroids and those kind of things, they need that to mentally think they have an advantage they didn’t earn,†she said.
“It’s a crutch for her. She needs to feel like she somehow has an advantage from the outside. She doesn’t think she’s good enough with what she has. That’s why you dope in the first place because you feel like the best you have isn’t good enough. She feels like if we fight fair, what she has isn’t good enough. That’s why she wants it to be somehow stacked in her favour.
Rousey commented that it should be relatively easy for a clean fighter to drop down one weight class, posing the question as to Justino’s alleged drug use.
“If you can make weight and be on steroids, even if it’s making weight or a relatedly making weight-friendly steroid, you’re still, without it you’re capable of moving down. You see what happens to people without it when they get off of steroids? You see what they look like. It’s very easy for them to drop down. They immediately shrink up. It changes everything. It’s all an insecurity thing.â€