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Joined: Fri Feb 22, 2013 12:02 am
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 And so it begins. Maybe. And it didn't take long.
UFC women's bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is being courted by Hollywood, and late Wednesday it was reported that the crossover MMA star has signed with the William Morris Endeavor talent agency.
The Hollywood Reporter first reported the news.
Rousey (7-0 MMA, 1-0 UFC) is coming off of yet another first-round arm bar win, this time over Liz Carmouche (8-3 MMA, 0-1 UFC) at UFC 157 this past Saturday in Anaheim, Calif. But never has it come on a bigger stage.
The fight, of course, was the first women's bout in UFC history. And though the figures for UFC pay-per-view buys don't get made public, the early rumbling is that the card performed at a rate higher than the previous pay-per-view's superfight between Jose Aldo and Frankie Edgar, and perhaps even nearing the reported 590,000 that UFC 155 did with Cain Velasquez vs. Junior dos Santos for the heavyweight title.
The mainstream media responded in a big way for Rousey. And while it's not as if she's jumping headfirst into Hollywood, signing with WME has her positioned for those possibilities in the future.
Reports surfaced earlier this week that Rousey already had a movie offer – a part in the upcoming sequel to "The Hunger Games," starring Sunday's Best Actress Oscar winner, Jennifer Lawrence. Not a bad start.
But UFC President Dana White has been down this road before. Quinton "Rampage" Jackson took himself out of commission for a while to do the big-screen version of "The A-Team," and it delayed a fight with rival Rashad Evans. To say White's not necessarily a fan of his fighters trying to split time between fighting and making movies may be an understatement.
Of course, nothing is set yet for Rousey. But the mere fact she has signed with WME means she's officially on Hollywood's radar for commercials, for big-ticket sponsors, and yes, for movies. (It should be noted that Jon Jones' Nike deal was negotiated by WME, so the agency has plenty of history dealing with sports stars, and recent history dealing with MMA stars.)
"You know how I feel about the movie stuff," White told FUEL TV's "UFC Tonight" on Tuesday. "The hard part is, even like the Rampage thing – when 'Rampage' did the movie, it was Rampage's dream to be a part of 'The A-Team' and everything else. I don't want to take away any opportunities away from Ronda, but at the same time, the thing that you have to keep in perspective is that her window of opportunity as a professional athlete is (small). She could make a zillion movies when this sport's over. And where she's really going to make the money is here fighting. I don't care if she's the lead role in ‘The Hunger Games 2,' she would not make anywhere near, and I mean not even in the universe, to the money she makes fighting."
White also doesn't like the thought of losing Rousey for the length of time it would take to shoot a movie, plus the length of time she could potentially be out promoting the film's release.
"A movie takes her out of the mix for eight months," White said. "A movie like 'The Hunger Games,' that movie is an international blockbuster hit. So when that thing launches in the U.S., she has to do all the press for that, all the press for the U.K., and every other movie that that movie launches in.
"She can't be gone for that long – she really can't. It's something that we talked about briefly, but we haven't really gotten into it yet."
For now, it's not likely that Rousey would ditch MMA to make movies. But the fact Hollywood has its collective eye on her is yet another vote of confidence in her direction.Source: MMAJunkie.com
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