No one can accuse Ronda Rousey of resting on her Ultimate Fighting Championship laurels. She announced her next fight immediately after vanquishing her rival Miesha Tate in Las Vegas on Saturday.
Rousey defended her Ultimate Fighting Championship women's bantamweight title Saturday, beating Tate with an arm-bar submission in the third round. In the post-fight news conference, UFC president Dana Whit announced that Rousey will take on Sara McMann Feb. 22 at Las Vegas' Mandalay Bay.
"Dana actually approached me about this before this fight," said Rousey. "I'm ready to get back into it. I’m still hungry."
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Rousey, who became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo when she captured the bronze medal in Beijing in 2008, has learned to be the bad guy in her fights. That reputation was enhanced when she refused to shake Tate's hand after winning her match on Saturday,
according to USA Today.
Rousey, who was showered by boos before and after her fight on Saturday, compared herself to Christian Bale's Batman trilogy in describing her bad guy role in UFC circles.
"I wasn't surprised (by the boos), because I was aware of the role I was in," Rousey told USA Today. "Batman played the bad guy and let (Two-Face) look like the good guy because that's what Gotham City needed at the time. For every fight, I approach it as what's needed at the time."
Fox Sports' Kenny Florian said Rousey's rivalry with Tate is just what women's UFC needs to grow the sport.
"Rivalries are an amazing thing in sports," Florian said in his Fox Sports blog. "It brings intrigue and passion to competition. To have an epic rivalry like Rousey and Tate had so early in a division's history was a true blessing for women in the UFC.
"So many credit the brutal rivalry of the Boston Celtics and the Los Angeles Lakers from the 1980's as the main reason for why the NBA is so popular today. To be successful, every sport needs someone you can cheer for and someone you can hiss at," Florian continued.
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Rousey's celebrity stock is also on the rise, as she is expected to appear in the movies "The Expendables 3" in 2014 and "Fast & Furious 7" in 2015,
according to IMDb.com.