Ronda Rousey offers her thoughts on the aftermath UFC 229.
On October 6th the UFC presented UFC 229 from the T-Mobile Arena in Paradise, Nevada. On a fight night that gave bouts that received praise from the commentators and those who viewed it from the venue or from their own personal spaces, the aftermath of the main event was the talk of the MMA world and it still is the talk of it in some areas. Khabib Nurmagomedov defended his UFC Lightweight Championship against Conor McGregor and in the fourth round Khabib trapped Conor in a jaw lock and McGregor submitted.
When the brawl was all said it done the topic of conversation was nothing but Khabib and McGregor. The aftermath of the fight made its way to the realm outside of combat sports and the world was seemingly focused in on UFC 229. A number of individuals have chimed in on the situation and one of the latest to do so was UFC Hall Of Famer and current WWE RAW Women's Champion Ronda Rousey. TMZ Sports caught up with "Rowdy" Ronda and asked her about the fight and the aftermath and she stated that there does not need to be anyone arrested in order to promote and/or make a fight interesting and elaborated on those sentiments.
“Honestly, I was on a plane, flying from Australia. I didn't actually watch the fight." She said. "I watched the aftermath of the fight and the build up to the fight and, it’s… I understand promoting fights, and having to sell them, I really do. But I’ve also… and I understand you gotta do what you gotta do to make sure you’re promoting something I get it, but I don’t think people have to get arrested in order to do that. I think I’ve been able to prove that you can make a fight exciting and make people really wanna see it without crossing any legal lines and.. I’m just glad both guys are healthy and I’m glad it was a great match. I’m kind of sorry its been soured by the aftermath. I feel like their performances aren’t gonna get enough credit because of what happened and I just really hope it doesn’t become an on-going trend." Ronda said. "I want people to feel safe bringing their kids to fights and things like that and, I hope that this isn’t an on-going trend and just a single occurrence.”
Ronda then went on to on to add that she does not think Khabib jumping out of the octagon was worse than Conor's bus attack in Brooklyn earlier this year. Ronda stated that if there was a line to be drawn, it should've been drawn prior to UFC 229.
“I think if you’re gonna draw the line there, you should’ve drawn it before that. I think that Khabib jumping out of the octagon was not as bad as throwing objects at a bus because you know - my friend Rose Namajunas was on that bus. My friend Mike Chiesa missed his fight because he got cut." She continued, "So you know, I just feel like it has to be equal treatment all the way across the board. I don’t think anyone should get special treatment because they’re a bigger draw. I think that’s the same when it comes to performance enhancing drugs, when it comes to felonies, hit and runs or anything like that. I think there is too much preferential treatment given to the high profile fighters and I think there needs to be equal discipline across the board no matter who you are because people are gonna start thinking once they get to a certain level that the rules don’t apply to them.” She explained.
Sean Ross Sapp, Joe Ferraro and MMA Insider James Lynch gave their opinions on what transpired after the UFC 229 main event on the recent Fightful MMA podcast and to hear their thoughts on the situation, head over to the "podcasts" section of Fightful.
If you are going to use the quotes above, please credit TMZ Sports with an H/T to Fightful for the transcriptions.
