The first and current UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey was not all that happy when she found out that her UFC bantamweight title defense against Cat Zingano was changed from Jan. 3 to Feb. 28.
She said "I wasn't happy about it. But there was really nothing I could do about it. I just show up and fight when they tell me to show up and fight, and I show up and win, and that's it. Who it is and what it is is outside of my control, so I can't really invest too much of my happiness in it."
But it did not take her too long to see the positive side of the changes made. Now that her game has been moved to another date and another fight, UFC 184, it also means that the venue has been changed as well.
Rousey is given the opportunity to be one of the featured names on the marquee at the West Coast's glamor arena, one that just happens to double as her hometown venue: Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.
This is like a dream come true for Rousey. She has been dreaming of this ever since she was tending bar in one of LA's not so desirable districts in order to make ends meet.
She said "It has always been a dream of mine to fight at Staples Center, and so that is the silver lining. I always want to do the Staples Center, I remember they days when I was cocktail waitressing and I was watching the Lakers play on TV and being like, man, I wonder if things would be different if, like, Luke Walton walked in here and asked me out and I would never have to cocktail waitress again. I was sitting there on a shady bar on Crenshaw thinking like, if the third-string player on the Lakers asked me my life would be different. And now I'm going to be one of the headliners at the Staples Center, it's pretty ridiculous. It feels special, it really does."
When asked if it is an issue since she will just be co-heading the event rather than be the headline of the show, she said that it did not matter.
She adds "Oh no, not at all, If I could be co-main the rest of my life, I'd love that. Do you know how much less work I have to do as the co-main event?"
