Ronda Rousey is rapidly developing a reputation for being unafraid to say what’s on her mind. The current Strikeforce women’s bantamweight champion and former Olympics bronze medalist recently made headlines when she said she wanted to beat the crap out of Kim Kardashian. Rousey is back at it again, only this time she’s taking aim at Michael Phelps.
In an interview with reporter Elie Seckbach (seen above), Rousey discussed her experience as a judo fighter at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing. Rousey advised athletes to use lots of condoms while they’re in London (the secret about the Olympic Village has been exposed!), talked about athletes gone wild with partying, and she suggested they pack lightly. She also dished on one of the athletes who she felt was stuck up.
“Michael Phelps kind of annoyed me a little bit,” Rousey told Seckbach. “We had this club thing for the US team and all the Olympians are hanging out together, all the NBA players are hanging out, and Michael Phelps needed his own private section of the club,” she ranted.
“All these NBA players are a bigger deal than this guy and they’re hanging out with the rest of us. We’re like, ‘Hello, we’re your teammates! We’re not a bunch of groupies! Come hang out with us! Who are you?'”
Rousey also shared a story about the time several US medalists visited “The Oprah Winfrey Show.” She says all the NBA players including Kobe Bryant were hanging out with everyone else, but Phelps wasn’t.
“Michael Phelps had to be kept separate in a different backstage area so he wouldn’t be harassed by the other Olympians,” Rousey said.
“I don’t like being somebody’s teammate and being treated like I’m their groupie. I didn’t even want to go out of my way to go and say hi to that guy. Just get over yourself,” she said of Phelps. “All you do is swim. If somebody slapped you every single time you jumped in the pool, then I’d have a little bit more respect. But I was a swimmer before, so you can’t tell me that swimming is ‘oh my god’ because I’ve done it before.”
Yikes! Tell us how you really feel about him, Ronda. And between Rousey’s criticism and teammate Tyler Clary’s harsh words, it sure seems like Bash Michael Phelps Month.
Phelps won eight gold medals in Beijing and was the standout athlete at the Olympics. He arguably was the biggest story in Beijing. But does that mean he should have been big-timing his Olympic teammates? Definitely not, though given the way his reputation was tarnished when his privacy was violated in the past, it’s understandable why he might be inclined to keep to himself.
