Ronda Rousey can throw her opponents around with ease, but oh boy can she also throw some shade!
Shortly after winning the 2015 Best Fighter ESPY Award, the UFC women’s bantamweight champion had some harsh words for boxing superstar and fellow ESPY nominee Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I can’t help but really say that I wonder how Floyd feels being beat by a woman for once,” Rousey said on the red carpet at Wednesday’s event. “I’d like to see him pretend to not know who I am now.”
Mayweather, who has been heavily criticized throughout his career for his history of domestic abuse, was quoted saying he didn’t know who Rousey was during a July 2014 press tour.
“I don’t even know who he is,” Mayweather told reporters in the lead-up to his rematch with Marcos Maidana.
Rousey has been so dominant in her mixed martial arts career – 11-0 in MMA with only one fight lasting longer than one round – that the topic of how she would do fighting a man is often brought up.
UFC president Dana White has said on multiple occasions that Rousey would easily defeat Mayweather in a fight.
When asked recently by Sportsnet’s Donnovan Bennett about the oft-discussed fantasy fight with Mayweather, she replied: “I don’t think there is any scenario that a stadium of people should get together to cheer a man hitting a woman.”
Rousey, 28, became the first mixed martial artist to win the Best Fighter ESPY. The only other winners of that award are Mayweather (six times) and Manny Pacquiao (twice).
Rousey was also named Best Female Athlete beating tennis superstar Serena Williams, skier Lindsey Vonn and college basketball player Breanna Stewart.