Rousey: UFC debut against Carmouche ‘felt bigger’ than WrestleMania 35

Ronda Rousey compares her WrestleMania 35 headliner to her UFC debut against Liz Carmouche in 2013.

UFC Hall-of-Famer Ronda Rousey has made a lot of history these past years. Apart from paving the way for women’s mixed martial artists, she was also part of the first-ever women’s main event match in the WWE, which took place at WrestleMania 35 in April.

But when asked which of the two bears more importance, Rousey still points to her UFC debut against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157 in 2013 as the bigger game changer.

“[WrestleMania] felt big, it’s just I think it just has to do with the time, with the perspective. Me and Liz Carmouche, it felt bigger to me,” Rousey told Megan Olivi in an exclusive interview (transcript by MMA Fighting). “Even though it was years ago and not as many people watched and it was in the Honda Center, which maybe holds like 16 to 20 thousand compared to WrestleMania, where it was in front of like 80,000 people and millions of people watching.

“I just felt like me and Carmouche was the most pivotal moment, where everything had to happen that way or else women’s MMA would have ended before it started.”

Rousey feels her WWE run was somehow predetermined by fate, as opposed to her UFC debut, which had a lot of unpredictable factors.

“With WrestleMania, it just felt like all the stars were aligned and the whole universe was conspiring for us to succeed and I had not a single doubt in my mind that we would,” Rousey said. “But for Carmouche, it was so many outside factors of like, the numbers had to do well and I had to win the match, but I had to win the match in an exciting way.

“There were just so many other different factors that I had to worry about and I feel like the stakes were higher in a way even though the venue and the audience was smaller.”

Rousey says she is currently more focused on having a family with husband Travis Browne, leaving her WWE career up in the air, as of the moment.