Why Ronda Rousey Likes to Have “As Much Sex As Possible” Before Fights

Getting rowdy in the sheets helps her be Rowdy in the cage. 

If Ronda Rousey is internet catnip (which, we’ve discovered, it is), then a story about Ronda Rousey and sex is internet meth. That explains why an interview with the undefeated queen of the MMA from 2012 is making the rounds online this week.

Specifically, Rousey appeared on the Jim Rome Show to talk about the old yarn that a fighter should abstain from grounding and pounding for as many as six weeks before a big fight. “I mean for girls it raises your testosterone, so I try to have as much sex as possible before a fight, actually,” she told Jim Rome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p9Eg0cD4B8A

She’s not wrong either. Here’s a study from 1992 that monitored testosterone levels in men and women before and after sex. As it happens, the old in-and-out does in fact increase a woman’s testosterone. What’s unclear is if that increased testosterone does anything to help women win fights. But if Rousey is our evidence, then the proof is in the pudding: She’s 12-0. 

Photos by Josh Hedges / Zuffa LLC / Getty Images