Ronda Rousey recalls the surprising T-shirt Dana White was wearing during their first meeting
12/24/2024 07:16 PM
Former UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey’s first face-to-face meeting with Dana White featured a bizarre wardrobe choice on the part of the UFC headman.
Before Ronda Rousey became a pioneer in women’s MMA when she became the UFC’s first female signee, she had a chance first meet with Dana White while assisting one of her teammates. But Rousey remembers her first encounter with White for what the UFC headman was wearing as she introduced herself.
Rousey and White remain close to this day, several years removed from the former UFC bantamweight champion’s last appearance in the Octagon. She walked away from fighting after a loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in her highly-anticipated return to the cage.
At a time when White was adamant that women would never compete in the Octagon as long as he was in charge, Rousey and others hoped to change his mind. While Rousey was eventually successful in persuading White to bring women aboard the UFC roster, their first meeting wasn’t what Rousey expected.
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Ronda Rousey details hilarious first meeting with Dana White
During an appearance on Chris Van Vliet‘s podcast, Rousey recalled her bizarre first encounter with White.
“I was helping Manny Gamburyan with his weigh-in, and I just did the ESPN: The Body Issue, and he was wearing a screen-printed shirt of me on the cover,” Rousey said. “He’s just a fan [LAUGHS]…he knew that all of the Armenian guys were my guys, and he knew Manny was on the card.
“I just asked him for 15 minutes of his time,” Rousey continued. “And when he was done with the weigh-ins, he pulled me to the side in this room in the bowels of the arena…and I just asked him for his advice about things. I didn’t tell him ‘You need to put women in UFC’, we didn’t talk about it at all. I knew in that moment it wasn’t my job to tell him how to run his business, it was my job to make him like me as much as possible and feel invested in my success.”
White has never discussed the details of when he met Rousey for the first time, but the two retain a close friendship years after her retirement. She entered the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018 after setting the standard for female dominance in MMA.
Ronda Rousey became a legend after awkward meeting with Dana White
Rousey went on to set numerous UFC records, including the fastest finish (0:14) in a UFC title fight when she subbed Cat Zingano at UFC 184. She defeated the likes of Miesha Tate, Alexis Davis, and Bethe Correia during her storied career.
Rousey and Liz Carmouche squared off in the UFC’s first-ever female fight at UFC 157. Rousey retained the inaugural UFC bantamweight championship by finishing Carmouche with an armbar in the first round.
Rousey and White helped build the UFC’s women’s divisions into what they are today. Stars like Valentina Shevchenko, Zhang Weili, and Nunes wouldn’t’ve shined had Rousey not changed White’s mind on female fights.
