Paige VanZant still can’t get her head around why Ronda Rousey verbally attacked her but she is happy to write the altercation off as “an off day” for the former UFC women’s bantamweight champion.
The incident made headline news when Miesha Tate, a long-time rival of Rousey’s, revealed on The Joe Rogan Experience that ‘Rowdy’ had ripped VanZant a new one after the young strawweight congratulated Holly Holm after she beat Rousey at UFC 193 last November.
Ronda Rousey ripped one of the nicest UFC stars on the planet a new one for a totally unnecessary reason https://t.co/qUI5X2ONrd
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) May 6, 2016
Tate said: “I guess Ronda came up and was like, ‘Fuck you, you fair-weather bitch, how dare you cross me.’ She was like, ‘Cross you, what are you talking about?’ And [Rousey is] like, ‘You congratulated Holly Holm for beating me, so fuck you, you fair-weather, 115-pound…’ she just went off on Paige… Ronda just ripped her a new one.”
It was a strange falling-out considering the general consensus is that VanZant is one of the nicest and friendliest fighters on the UFC roster.
During an interview on The MMA Hour this week, ’12 Gauge’ was asked for an update on the relationship between herself and Rousey and whether amends had been made.
“I think so,” VanZant responded when asked if the beef was squashed. “It was just the one little altercation but I have absolutely no hard feelings, no frustrations towards her whatsoever.
“Whatever happened happened. I’m not really sure why or how but it’s over I think.
“It’s all forgotten. Us fighters are emotional. I’m very, very emotional so maybe I caught her on an off day.”
The pair haven’t crossed paths since their last bizarre interaction but VanZant, who took home a wonderful win at the weekend with a picture-perfect switch kick, claims that it’s normal for fighters to seldom see one another.
She said: “Even before that, we are both sponsored by Reebok so we’ll see each other at Reebok events but other than that, we’ve never crossed paths.
“There are a lot of UFC fighters, we’ll cross paths but we don’t really know each other or talk to each other.”
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