You can count outspoken talk-show host Wendy Williams among those not impressed with Sports Illustrated‘s decision to put Ronda Rousey on one of the multiple covers of their 2016 Swimsuit edition magazine. She had some harsh words for Rousey, which you can watch in the above video at the 14-minute mark. Or just read it here:
“This is the girl you that see swimming in your pool in Jersey! Like, she’s hot and she’s at the barbecue, but this is not — they say that the bathing suit is painted on and that it’s not a real bathing suit. So they painted it on her and it still doesn’t add to it. The hair is wrong, the eyes are wrong, the nose is wrong. The mouth is wrong the neck is wrong. Everything is wrong, wrong, wrong! And I’m not even counting the idea that she lost her last fight because that’s what a lot of people in my morning meeting were saying. I was like, win or lose doesn’t really matter, it’s just that she looks very, it’s like she’s from Queens or something. Or Jersey. Or Coney Island. This is SI, you all! they step it up! That’s all.”
Williams isn’t the only person who has criticized Ronda Rousey’s covergirl career. Floyd Mayweather was not happy when Rousey appeared on the cover of Ring Magazine, the premiere publication on boxing. He said it made the sport “look bad when a female fighter from a whole other sport is on the cover of a boxing book,” and accused Ring Magazine owner Oscar De La Hoya of sucking up to Ronda and trying to steal her away from the UFC.
Of course, we all know what happened after that — Ronda got out-boxed by multiple time boxing champion Holly Holm, who, by the way, never managed to make it onto the cover of Ring Magazine somehow.
The moral of this story? There are indeed more worthy persons to end up on the covers of magazines than Ronda Rousey. But can they sell as many issues as Ronda can? I doubt it very much. And that’s all Ronda being on the cover of any magazine means. So why get all butt hurt about some publication trying to up their bottom line? If you wanna nitpick who ends up on the cover of a magazine, maybe Wendy should start her own.