Ronda Rousey’s rise to fame hasn’t been without its fair share of drama and controversy. For all the fans she’s gained over her career, she has an equal amount of haters ready to tear her down and spread rumors whenever they pop up. One of those rumors was particularly salacious, that Ronda was in a sexual relationship with UFC President Dana White leading up to her arrival in the promotion.
It’s been three years since then, and the whispers have largely disappeared. But rather than ignore the accusations, Ronda included them in her new book My Fight / Your Fight and addressed them head on. According to the book, Ronda’s entry into the UFC was delayed due to promotional complications. UFC had just bought Strikeforce, where Rousey was champion. The plan was to bring her across to the big show eventually, but Strikeforce’s television contract with Showtime prevented White from just gutting the organization.
So, Ronda had to wait. And wait. Dana brought her out to multiple events with the intention of announcing her arrival in the UFC, but each time negotiations with Showtime stalled out. Meanwhile, Ronda and Dana were showing up in a lot of Twitter and Instagram pictures together. People were asking questions… was Ronda Rousey in some sort of relationship with Dana White?
The obvious answer was no; most people paying attention to the sport knew Rousey was on the cusp of moving to the UFC, and White was just giving her a hard promotional push. But others just couldn’t seem to comprehend a male and a female being around each other without sex being involved. Of course, there’s always the troll contingent insisting the only reason Dana was into Ronda at all was so he could get into her fight shorts.
During an interview on the MMA Hour, reporter Ariel Helwani asked her if she had considered not addressing the speculation in the book. She responded:
“No, I just told the story the way that I told it. And that was one of the things on my mind, that I had to keep it a secret, for that long, that I was gonna be in the UFC. That was something I really had to go through. I’m terrible at keeping secrets. I’m terrible at deflecting things if someone is like, “Why are you here?” And I can’t say why I’m there? I mean, that was a really frustrating time for me. To leave that out would be omitting the truth.”
…
“Yeah, it was annoying, but it was also kind of cool in that, you know, I was flying around on a private plane, being spoiled. But, it was annoying in that I kept getting built up and then let down and built up and let down. And it happened, like, three times until they surprised me.”
I know, it’s a sad day for all you folks who like to imagine Ronda Rousey and Dana White. But in this case, there was no hanky panky going on.
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