Strikeforce
Ronda Rousey unloads in response to Twitter comments by Miesha Tate's boyfriend Bryan Caraway
Mar 6, 2012 - 12:00:31 PM Ronda Rousey unloads in response to Twitter comments by Miesha Tate's boyfriend Bryan Caraway

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By: Jamie Penick, MMATorch Editor-in-Chief

Prior to last Saturday's bout with Miesha Tate for the Strikeforce Bantamweight Championship, Ronda Rousey took numerous shots at both Tate and her boyfriend, UFC featherweight Bryan Caraway. She made comments that she could compete with men in the sport, which led to this unfortunate response from Caraway on Twitter:

"If [Rousey] wants to challenge a man I'll knock her teeth [down] her throat [then] break her arm!"

That led to a lot of backlash, as well as Tate and Caraway trying to explain down the comments on Twitter. For Rousey, she doesn't think anything should come of it from a disciplinary standpoint, but she had more than a few choice words in response to Caraway in an interview with Ariel Helwani at MMAFighting.com.

"It's a free country, you can say whatever you want," Rousey said. "He's probably not that smart. I mean, what a way to make yourself look like a retard, to say women can't compete with men on the same level in any sport, and to say he wanted to knock my teeth down my throat. I don't think he needs to be reprimanded because I think anyone that saw that has reprimanded him enough. He's done enough harm on his own making himself look like an idiot that I don't think anyone else needs to step in."

"Of course I can [compete with him], dude. Who is he? You never heard of him if it wasn't for Miesha. He's just some dude. He's not even like a legit fighter. He's just some random guy that likes fighting."

Still, Rousey's happy to move beyond the tension that this fight brought about. The constant back and forth between herself and Tate's camp had her on edge through the fight, and she says she's now happy to get some rest.

"I've been not moving as much as possible," Rousey said. "It's just been so tiring not just physically but mentally. I just feel like I've been tense and holding my shoulders higher or something like that for months on end, and I finally just have just tons of relaxation and I really just don't want to move. So I'm very relaxed. It feels very relaxing to be champion."

Penick's Analysis: Regardless of the intent of his Tweet, it was a very stupid thing for Caraway to say. Rousey's completely downplaying who he is, and he's absolutely a legitimate fighter, but clearly in this worded feud, one turn deserves another here. And Rousey's right that Caraway's probably gotten plenty of negative reaction enough on Twitter to negate the need for any type of official reprimanding by the UFC. It's also good for Rousey to be able to take a load off her mind after getting this fight past her. The next bout she has with Sarah Kaufman will be much less personal than this fight ended up becoming, to say the least.