ESPN Asks Ronda Rousey About UFC Career and Things Get Weird

On a recent episode of RAW, Ronda Rousey candidly discussed her exit from UFC in front of WWE cameras. Thinking that that topic was open for discussion, ESPN directed not one, but two interviews towards the subject and Rousey killed them for it.

First, Rousey appeared on ESPN’s Golic and Wingo and host Mike Golic asked when she knew she was officially done with her MMA career.

Pulling double interview duty, Rousey joined First Take for a segment and things went from awkward to antagonistic.

We’re not sure what made Rousey so grouchy, but clearly, she has zero interest in discussing her UFC past. It’s possible that Rousey was there to talk about WrestleMania, and any UFC questions were ESPN hosts going off script. Maybe WWE told Rousey to be difficult. Or maybe Rousey enjoys awkward silences. We don’t know, but we now know to never ask Rousey questions about UFC if given the opportunity.

While it would be easy to indict Rousey for being so unfriendly, I’d like to applaud her for not obliging ESPN. It’s all too easy for Max Kellerman to bring up one of the most trying time of Rousey’s life and ask her to speak coherently on live television. If you watched WWE’s taped interview, you saw Rousey get very emotional on the subject. ESPN absolutely saw that footage and put their crosshairs on a similar reaction from Rousey for their programming.

But she didn’t give it to them. Sure, she could have been a little more professional, but maybe ESPN could have been a little more considerate.

So good for Rousey for playing the office heel, maybe she’s practicing for a menacing run in WWE.