For UFC’s Rousey, Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue can wait
As soon as the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue hits newsstands and mailboxes each year, millions of Americans begin flipping through the pages to get a gander at some of the most attractive women in the world wearing little clothing.
Ronda Rousey has been one of those interested readers in the past. Now that she is featured in the magazine, which hit newsstands last week, she has yet to pick up a copy.
She has other things on her mind.
The Ultimate Fighting Championship women’s bantamweight champion will defend her title against Cat Zingano in the main event of UFC 184 on Feb. 28 at Staples Center in Los Angeles.
“I’m in fight mode, so I’m not going to go out of my way to go buy one,” Rousey said Monday night by phone after a training session. “If someone brings me a copy, I’ll take a look at it, I guess. Right now, the only thing on my mind every day is preparing to beat Cat Zingano, and if going out of my way to go to a store to pick up a copy of Sports Illustrated doesn’t help me defeat Cat Zingano, I’m not going to do that until after I beat her.”
Not that she hasn’t seen the pictures. Rousey has posted several shots on her social media accounts in recent days from the shoot that took place in November on Florida’s Captiva Island in the Gulf of Mexico.
The first thing she noticed was a missing accessory.
“The only thing they changed was they took out my belly-button ring,” she said, laughing. “Everything else was exactly the same, they weren’t touched or photo-shopped at all except for I guess they didn’t like it, but they could have just asked me to take it out. I was actually kind of sad. I’ve had it since I was 14 years old. When I fight is the only time I don’t wear it. It was kind of weird. Maybe I should get fancier ones than the $10 ones I buy on Venice Beach.”
Other than that and what she described as “freezing cold” conditions, Rousey raved about the experience.
“It definitely was one of my favorite (photo shoots), not just because the pictures turned out well, but everyone was amazing,” she said of famed photographer Walter Iooss Jr. and his crew. “They were all so experienced. I learned so much from working with them that day, and they were such a joy.”
She has appeared in many magazines, with the most memorable being ESPN The Magazine’s body Issue, but this one was different.
Rousey, 28, got down to her fighting weight of 135 pounds for that shoot but wanted to go with her more natural look for Sports Illustrated.
She says she showed up at her walking-around weight of about 150 pounds.
“This was more about femininity than athleticism,” Rousey said. “I really tried to be in the shape I’m in day to day. I feel more attractive when I’m a little bigger, so I wasn’t going to cut down to 135 for that photo shoot. I feel like women should see healthy bodies to aspire to.”
The ability to make a statement was one of the reasons Rousey was so excited when she got the offer to appear in the issue, which she says helps “set the cultural standard.”
“It’s a publication that makes a real difference in what people think about what’s expected of women,” she said. “It’s one of those things that I’ve been really wanting to advocate for change for. When I was a kid, the kind of girls I saw in magazines like that didn’t look anything like me or anything like I would ever look like. They were beautiful women, but they were less than 1 percent of the population of women. I think all spectrums of body types should be represented. If you’re healthy, you should be shown in an attractive light. I think Sports Illustrated is one of those publications that has really not been shy to take risks and has really embraced reality.”
She pointed to the magazine’s increased use of athletes in recent years and this year’s decision to include a “plus-size” model as examples of positive change.
“It’s so much more than the cookie-cutter idea of what a woman should look like now,” Rousey said. “That’s what makes it different.”
Now she can go back to fighting and acting. Ever since she started her second career as an actress, she has been asked when she would abandon fighting for the easy money of Hollywood.
She has no plans to quit either any time soon and certainly not to become a full-time model, preferring to leave that for the women who do it professionally.
“I’m glad that I can model sometimes, but I think of myself more like a decathlete,” she said. “I can do a bunch of different things, but I’m not going to beat the marathon runner in the marathon.
“It’s kind of cool to be able to hang in there with them, though.”
Contact reporter Adam Hill at ahill@reviewjournal.com or 702-224-5509. Follow him on Twitter: @adamhilllvrj.
