MMA fighter Ronda Rousey appeared to dismiss the pay gap between men and women insofar as fighting sports are concerned in an interview reportedly conducted by Yahoo News host Bianna Golodryga.
Rousey defeated Bethe Correia in 34 seconds on Satuday night at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and there is speculation that her next major bout may be with Cris “Cyborg” Justino. Rousey now has a 12-0 record in UFC. She dedicated the fight to Rowdy Roddy Piper, the recently deceased WWE star, with whom she shared a nickname.
The former Olympic bronze medalist in judo (the first female competitor from the U.S. to earn a medal in that sport), she went on to become the first female fighter to sign with the Ultimate Fighting Championship group after previously being affiliated with Strikeforce.
Rousey, 28, also has a burgeoning acting career which will include playing herself in a film based on her autobiography.
In the Yahoo interview, Ronda Rousey praised MMA in that the UFC is the most pro-woman sport’s organization in the world because it makes no distinction between male and female fighters. She holds the bantam weight belt, not the women’ s bantam weight championship, Rousey noted.
In the interview which may have been taped prior to UFC 190 because the UFC star referred to her record as 11-0 rather than 12-0, the host asked Rousey if she was angry that boxers like Floyd Mayweather take home hundreds of millions per fight while she only earns about $1 million for stepping into the Octagon.
Appearing somewhat uncomfortable with that line of questioning about the pay disparity in pay per view, the UFC champ responded in a way that perhaps surprised the interviewer by emphasizing the importance of hard work. See embedded footage below.
“I don’t like to talk about exactly how much money I make, but I’m extremely comfortable and happy…If I had almost 50 fights, I’d probably be making close to the same amount of money as Floyd does. But at this point, I have eleven. I can’t expect it to be exactly equal yet, I don’t think. I have put more time in.”
Although the gender pay gap between men and women is a big issue for feminists, some elements of the news media, and for politicians like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton , other researchers and analysts have argued in the alternative that factoring in variables such as seniority and continuous work experience, education, hours worked, and type of job minimizes the gender pay gap.
Pay discrimination on the basis of gender has been illegal in the U.S. since 1963.
The Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao PPV boxing match in May reportedly generated in excess of $500 million in revenue, with the fighters splitting a purse of about $350 million, according to Business Insider .
Definitive figures for UFC 190 featuring Ronda Rousey have yet to be released at this writing, although Dana White predicted at least one million PPV buys.
[Photo by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images Sport]