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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief
Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey isn't a fan of Michael Phelps. The two were teammates for the U.S. at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, where Rousey capture a bronze medal in Judo, with Phelps setting records in swimming, but in a recent interview, Rousey ripped into Phelps' behavior while they were in Beijing.
Rousey pointed to a party for the American team, where Phelps opted to keep to his own area with a small group while the rest of the team, including the NBA players on Team USA's basketball squad, all mingled together.
"These NBA players are a bigger deal than this guy, and they're hanging out with us," Rousey said (via Yahoo! Sports). "We're teammates. We're not a bunch of groupies. Come hang out with us."
She added that Phelps acted in a similar manner when Team USA had a visit to the Oprah Winfrey show, and it just didn't sit well with her.
"I don't like being somebody's teammate and being treated like I'm a groupie," Rousey said. "I didn't even want to go out of my way to say hello to that guy. Get over yourself. All you do is swim. If someone slapped you every time you jumped in the pool, I might have a little respect, but I was a swimmer before I did this stuff, and you can't tell me that swimming is OH MY GOD, because it's not."
Rousey made the switch to MMA not long after the 2008 games were finished, and Phelps returns this week at the 2012 games in London, hoping to capture more medals to set the all-time record.
Penick's Analysis: Rousey is a very outspoken individual, and when someone asks her about something she's not going to bite her tongue. That's what happened here, and her response isn't really that surprising at all. Phelps doesn't have the greatest reputation amongst his teammates, and though he has a lot of public appearances and endorsements and fans, many haven't had kind words to say about him in the past. Of course, Rousey's concern isn't the Olympics these days, as she'll make her first title defense on August 18 against Sarah Kaufman.
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Jamie Penick, editor-in-chief
(mmatorcheditor@gmail.com)
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