UFC President Dana White once said women would never be hired by his promotion. Now, a woman is his highest-paid fighter.
Appearing on Ellen on Monday, Ronda Rousey told the popular talk-show host that no fighter—male or female—makes more when stepping into a UFC ring.
"Now I'm the highest paid fighter in the UFC," Rousey said, per the Hollywood Reporter. "It's pretty cool. It's fun to say."
There has been little doubt for a couple of years that Rousey, 28, is the sport's most dominant and popular athlete. She has won five of her first six UFC bouts in the first round, including a 34-second thrashing of Bethe Correia in August. Her last three fights combined have gone a total of 64 seconds.
Yet, despite her dominance, Rousey said on Ellen she still gets overcome with emotion—to the point she cried before the Correia fight:
You’re so amped up and it’s like every emotion that you could possibly have it happens during that week. It’s like the most stress, most anxiety, most pressure possible and then it’s the happiest you could possibly be. It’s all these things and it’s just sometimes you cant hold it in. It’s gotta leak out of somewhere why not your eyes?
There appears to be no stopping Rousey's mainstream popularity, either. She appeared at WrestleMania earlier this year, and it was announced last week that she will be starring in a remake of the 1980s classic Road House as the lead character. With a burgeoning film career and interests outside of the sport, it's likely White will have to write bigger and bigger checks to keep Rousey coming back to the UFC ring.
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