Laila Ali has never been a big fan of Ronda Rousey.
Back in March 2015, TMZ Sportscaught up with Ali and asked her whether or not she thought she could beat Rousey—who was still undefeated at the time and widely considered to be unbeatable—in a fight. Ali responded by saying Rousey was "too small" to beat her up. "She’s like the size of my daughter," Ali said. "My three-year-old."
Later that year, shortly after Rousey lost for the first time in her UFC career to Holly Holm, TMZ Sports caught up with Ali again, and she continued to take shots at Rousey. She said she thought if Rousey fought Holm for a second time, the result would be the same. "I don’t think she should have a rematch with Holly Holm," she said. "Because I think it would go the same way. Maybe worse."
And just in case you’re wondering, Ali still hasn’t softened her stance on Rousey. At all. During a recent interview with International Business Times, she was asked about Rousey yet again, and she made it clear that she doesn’t think Rousey was ever as good as people thought she was. She said that her recent loss to Amanda Nunes proved that.
"She’s pretty much been exposed," Ali said. "She can’t take a punch. It doesn’t take anything away from her, what she did as a Judo champion, what she did in the Olympics. But she was basically built up by her promoter to be the best ever to fight, period, in any form of fighting, and it just never was true."
Ali also talked about the Rousey/Muhammad Ali comparisons that some people have made over the years. And as you would expect, she hates them.
"I’ve heard people say, 'Well, Muhammad Ali lost, he’s still great,'" she said. "First of all, Muhammad Ali never lost like that. He never got in there and was made to look like a rag doll. And when he did lose, it was pretty much after he had been off for three years. He was in his prime, had to take time off, came back, fought the best, then he came back and had rematches against the best, so please don’t ever compare her to my father."
This is actually the second time Ali has addressed Rousey’s loss to Nunes this month. She also did it during an appearance on The Rich Eisen Show in early January. "You thought she could beat me?" she asked towards the end of that appearance. "What happened?"
That’s a question everyone is still trying to answer in light of Rousey’s stunning fall from grace.
