Ronda Rousey
Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey asserts that despite her continued success in the mixed martial arts arena her judo is still as sharp as ever and is the main reason why she can still snatch an Olympic gold medal. While the reigning queen bee of the UFC proclaimed she still yearns to collect the best prize in the Olympics, she has no immediate plans to return to the once in every four years sports meet.IN PHOTO: Ronda Rousey (2nd L) of the U.S., Mayra Silva (L) of Brazil, Marylise Levesque (2nd R) of Canada and Yuri Alvear of Colombia hold their medals after the women's -70kg judo competition at the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro July 20, 2007. REUTERS/Bruno Domingos (BRAZIL)

Ultimate Fighting Championship, or UFC, women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey asserts that despite her continued success in the mixed martial arts arena her judo is still as sharp as ever and is the main reason why she can still snatch an Olympic gold medal. While the reigning queen bee of the UFC proclaimed she still yearns to collect the best prize in the Olympics, she has no immediate plans to return to the once in every four years sports meet.

“I still believe I would be able to win the Olympics,” Rousey said in a phone interview Tuesday to NBC Sports. “That takes 100 percent of your energy. It has to be the No. 1 priority in your life.”

The 28-year-old Rousey was a part of Team U.S.A.’s judo delegation to the 2008 Beijing Olympics wherein she garnered her lone Olympic bronze medal. After the stint, she decided to turn professional in 2011 and has been a runaway train inside the Octagon since, but that did not stop her to continue to adore her love for the Olympic stage, even brandishing a tattoo of the logo of the Olympic rings on her left pelvis accompanied with the motto, “citius altius fortius.”

She added in the recent interview that her decision to altogether leave judo for good and focus on mixed martial arts was not accepted wholeheartedly by her judo mentor, Judo Pedro, himself a two-time Olympic gold medallist. This led to a distant relationship with Pedro after Rousey revealed that she has not kept in touch with her former coach since turning professional.

Despite being away from the Olympics, Rousey does not discount the idea of being a spectator for the next iteration at Rio de Janeiro next year. She added that her sister Jennifer has taken the torch in the family and that the Olympic chapter in her life is all but closed.

Rousey currently has no official fight lined up in the immediate future but she has already considered several contenders including self-proclaimed slayer of the “Four Horsewomen,” Bethe Correia. The former judoka added that she is even willing to fly out to Correia’s home country of Brazil to stage a title fight, dubbing it similar to Rocky Balboa’s conquest of Ivan Drago in “Rocky IV.”

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