Ronda Rousey Lands SI Cover; Talks Her Decision To Pose Nude, Boyfriend Taking Nude Pics, More
Ronda Rousey is doing press galore, as her book My Fight/Your Fight releases in bookstores everywhere today. The book was penned alongside her sister Maria Burns Ortiz, who also works as a sports journalist. The book received a lot of attention last month when Wal-Mart deemed it "too violent" to display on shelves.
During an appearance on Opie Radio to promote the release of the book, Rousey revealed why she made the decision to pose nude for ESPN's Body Issue magazine. She pointed to an incident ahead of her 2012 championship fight with Miesha Tate, where she caught her then-boyfriend taking pictures of her.
"It's more of a defensive thing. Writing the book, the whole, 'My Fight, Your Fight' thing has really forced me to be introspective and figure out why I do things the way I do. It was because of that one ex, we called him 'Snappers McCreepy,' because we caught him taking naked pictures of me. The first thing I did was take naked pictures for ESPN. If it's going to get out there, then I want it to get out there on my terms. The same thing with playing the heel. If people are going to dislike me it's because I sought for it to be that way," she said.
"He went to work and I stayed behind and was using his computer," said Rousey. "I was downloading a picture off Facebook so I could put it on to Twitter. You know how it shows the preview of recent downloads? I was downloading something and then I just saw a bunch of ass! 'What is that?' It looked like it was amateurly taken. I had to look so I looked at it and it was all me. You know when you're just comfortable naked around somebody? Like you're just naked on the bed playing DragonVale on your phone? I brush my teeth naked. That was all, every single thing, all naked. I just thought he was on his phone texting people. He asked to take picture of me before and I was like, 'No, of course not.' He knew I didn't (condone it). That's why his name was Snappers McCreepy and if you read the book you can see how I reacted to said photos."
As media for the book has ramped up, Rousey has also secured the cover of next week's Sports Illustrated. In addition to the cover, Rousey was recently named Sports Illustrated's "most dominant athlete." UFC tweeted out the cover earlier.
Congrats @RondaRousey on making the cover of #SportsIllustrated and named SI's most dominant athlete! On stands 5/13 pic.twitter.com/FAdh5amOxd
? UFC (@ufc) May 12, 2015