Gennady Golovkin on UFC champ Ronda Rousey: 'She's the best female athlete in the world'

Ronda Rousey repping Gennady Golovkin

UFC champion Ronda Rousey is a serious fan of undefeated boxing champion Gennady Golovkin. It appears the feeling is mutual.

Rousey (12-0 MMA, 6-0 UFC) and Golovkin (33-0) have traded compliments in the past. They share some similar attributes from a competition perspective, because both athletes have earned Olympic medals and possess undefeated records in their respective combat sports.

Rousey’s star power has taken off over the past couple years and she’s evolved into a worldwide sensation largely due to her incredibly short and dominant fights, the past three of which have lasted 34, 14 and 16 seconds, respectively.

Rousey recently won ESPN’s “Best Fighter” award at the ESPYs, a category which Golovkin was also nominated for. “Rowdy” also took home the “Best Female Athlete” award. Golovkin believes no one was more deserving of the distinctions and said Rousey is worth of all the praise she’s received.

“I know her; we’ve been training maybe two, three times together in boxing gym,” Golovkin told MMAjunkie. “She is nice lady. She’s great athlete. She’s the best female athlete in the world. She’s a beautiful lady and beautiful person. I like her. She’s tough.”

Golovkin is rapidly gaining attention of his own in the boxing world and is primed to become the sport’s next breakthrough mainstream star. He meets David Lemieux in a middleweight championship unification match on Saturday in a HBO pay-per-view headliner at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Even with his busy schedule, though, Golovkin said he’s found time to watch Rousey’s fights. He tuned in for her 34-second knockout of Bethe Correia at UFC 190 in August, a fight in which Rousey used strictly punches to plant a fight-ending right hand on Correia’s temple for the highlight-reel knockout.

Golovkin said he was impressed by the boxing technique Rousey displayed in the contest.

“She’s good,” Golovkin said. “Beautiful performance. She has great technical (skills).”

Rousey recently recounted one of her meetings with Golovkin and, to the surprise of no one, only had positive thoughts to share about “Triple G.”

“I couldn’t say better things about him with how he conducts himself in the ring, how he conducts himself as a man,” Rousey said. “I mean, I don’t think he could do it any better.”

Rousey’s next contest takes place on Nov. 14 at UFC 193 at Etihad Stadium in Melbourne, Australia. She puts her women’s bantamweight title on the line for the seventh time against challenger Holly Holm in the pay-per-view headliner.

For more on UFC 193, check out the UFC Rumors section of the site.