Ronda Rousey says UFC debut against Liz Carmouche ‘felt bigger’ than Wrestlemania

Ronda Rousey has done a lot in her combat sports career. She competed in the Olympics, she was the first ever female UFC champion, she headlined UFC pay-per-views, and then she went to the WWE and took part in the first all-female Wrestlemania main event.

While Wrestlemania was a big deal for Rousey, she says it doesn’t compare to her first UFC fight, in which she defended her title with a submission of Liz Carmouche. 

“[WrestleMania] felt big, it’s just I think it just has to do with the time, with the perspective. Me and Liz Carmouche, it felt bigger to me,” Rousey said to Megan Olivi (transcript via MMAFighting). “Even though it was years ago and not as many people watched and it was in the Honda Center, which maybe holds like 16 to 20 thousand compared to WrestleMania, where it was in front of like 80,000 people and millions of people watching. I just felt like me and Carmouche was the most pivotal moment, where everything had to happen that way or else women’s MMA would have ended before it started.

“With WrestleMania, it just felt like all the stars were aligned and the whole universe was conspiring for us to succeed and I had not a single doubt in my mind that we would. But for Carmouche, it was so many outside factors of like, the numbers had to do well and I had to win the match, but I had to win the match in an exciting way. There were just so many other different factors that I had to worry about and I feel like the stakes were higher in a way even though the venue and the audience was smaller.”

Since then, the UFC has seen females headline cards on the regular. Just this past weekend, Rose Namajunas fought Jessica Andrade in the main event of UFC 237. For Rousey, that is one of the reasons why her UFC debut felt bigger than Wrestlemania did.

What do you consider the biggest moments in the legendary career of Ronda Rousey?

This article first appeared on BJPENN.COM on 5/13/2019.