Ronda Rousey is less than six weeks away from her first fight in ten years, and has started her training camp surrounded by a few fresh faces, including her former rival Miesha Tate’s longtime coach Ricky Lundell.
On May 16th, Rousey will square off with Gina Carano in the main event of MVP MMA 1 in Inglewood, California. Carano, another pioneer of women’s MMA, will also be returning after a long time away from the sport, having not fought since her loss to Cris Cyborg back in 2009.
It came as a surprise to many when Rousey teamed up with her former rival’s coach to prepare for the bout with Carano, but she explained in a recent interview that the feud is in the past. “Rowdy” was familiar with Lundell through her time coaching opposite Miesha Tate on The Ultimate Fighter, which she also referenced in her interview, citing he was so nice that the behaviour seemed ‘fake’. Rousey and Tate met in Strikeforce back in 2012, then again in a highly anticipated rematch in the UFC in 2013. Rousey was victorious by Armbar submission on both occasions, but the pair’s historical rivalry is one of the most memorable in UFC history.
“Started off as mortal enemies. He was coaching against me on The Ultimate Fighter and he was so nice, I was like this m*********** is so patronizing and fake and I hated his guts. It was like the monkey in the closet from Family Guy. That was me to Ricky all the time.
“This is a common theme, by the way, that he’s so nice that everyone was like ‘this m********* is not for real.’ He’s really just being a passive-aggressive a******, but he’s actually the nicest m***********,” Rousey continued. “Actually, the nicest person you will ever meet. So nice that you don’t think it’s real.”
(h/t MMA Fighting)