“I understand promoting fights and having to sell them. I really do. But, I don’t think people have to get arrested in order to do that.”
Ronda Rousey didn’t get the chance to watch the fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor at UFC 229, but the former women’s bantamweight champion followed the build-up and got to see the chaotic post-fight brawl in Las Vegas.
Rousey, who is currently signed with WWE, believes McGregor crossed the line when he launched a dolly through the window of a bus in retaliation to Khabib’s heated confrontation with SBG Ireland teammate Artem Lobov in Brooklyn, New York earlier this year.
“I understand promoting fights and having to sell them. I really do,” Ronda said in a recent interview with TMZ. “But, I don’t think people have to get arrested in order to do that.”
”I think I’ve been able to prove that you can make a fight exciting and make people really wanna see it without crossing any legal lines.”
Despite his arrest, the UFC used McGregor’s bus attack to promote his fight with Nurmagomedov, which led to even more chaos at the T-Mobile Arena on Oct. 6.
Rousey, who was one of the UFC’s flagship stars, believes McGregor’s attack at the Barclays Center was more reckless than Khabib’s post-fight brawl at the T-Mobile Arena.
“I think that Khabib jumping out of the Octagon was not as bad as throwing objects at a bus, because my friend Rose Namajunas was on that bus. My friend, Michael Chiesa, missed his fight because [he got cut by the glass],” Rousey said.
Ronda believes the UFC needs to take stricter measures to ensure that what happened before and after UFC 229 never happens again. The former Olympian worries about the long term consequences of the UFC’s risky promotional model.
“I would be much more strict about everything. I say you get popped for steroids once, you’re banned for life,” Rousey continued. ”You know, but then again I’m not the promoter of a multi-million dollar organization.”
”It’s just you have to think about, you know, from their perspective when is it not worth it anymore? I don’t want the company to be prioritizing this quarter over the next 10 years.
“I don’t want it to get to the point where people are not buying tickets to go see fights live, because they are afraid of what could happen in the arena.”
Nurmagomedov’s purse has been withheld by the Nevada State Athletic Commission and the reigning lightweight champion has threatened to leave the UFC if Dana White cuts teammate Zubaira Tukhugov for his involvement in the UFC 229 post-fight brawl.
McGregor, who who was submitted by Khabib in the fourth round, has called for an immediate rematch with Nurmagomedov.
