We’ve known it was coming for more than a month, and now it’s official: Ronda Rousey is back in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.
But this time, her status has been elevated into some pretty elite company. The former UFC champion is on the cover. Rousey is one of three models on separate covers of the issue, and she’s on there wearing nothing but body paint.
Rousey joins Ashley Graham and Hailey Clauson as models on this years covers. Sports Illustrated announced the covers Saturday during the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit 2016 Revealed” special on the TNT cable network.
Rousey appeared on the special with Graham and Clauson as the covers were unveiled. The hosts teased a cover reveal, and then with all three women on stage, announced for the first time in the issue’s history, there would be three separate covers.
“The three covers of Hailey, Ronda and Ashley celebrate the new SI Swimsuit,” SI Swimsuit Issue assistant managing editor MJ Day told SI.com. “All three women are beautiful, sexy and strong. Beauty is not cookie cutter. Beauty is not ‘one size fits all.’ Beauty is all around us and that became especially obvious to me while shooting and editing this year’s issue.”
“Ronda Rousey is a cultural phenomenon. She is the perfect combination of beauty, brains, brawn and humility. She possesses a spirit bigger than the space around her, and it is both infectious and inspiring. She’s a Phoenix, as fiery and beautiful as any mythical creature ever depicted.”
This year’s issue is available on newsstands Monday.
Rousey made waves when she became the first MMA fighter to appear in the magazine’s most celebrated annual issue in 2015. In early January, Day posted a photo on her Instagram account of a body-painted back and bare derrière that, thanks to the inclusion of two fairly famous wrist tattoos in the shot, appeared to be Rousey, but no official announcement was made that she’d be in the issue – and certainly not as a cover model.
The list of models to appear on the cover since its first issue in 1964 include modeling legends like Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Elle Macpherson, Kathy Ireland, Tyra Banks, Heidi Klum and Kate Upton. Prior to Rousey appearing on the cover this year as an athlete, music megastar Beyonce Knowles was the first non-model to appear on the cover in 1997.
Rousey (12-1 MMA, 6-1 UFC) was a massive favorite in her UFC 193 headliner against Holly Holm (10-0 MMA, 3-0 UFC) this past November. But the former pro boxer took it to the champ quickly into their fight, outstriking her throughout the first round. In the second, Holm landed a head kick that stunned the world, putting Rousey on the canvas, where she quickly finished her for the upset. It was arguably the biggest upset in MMA history.
UFC President Dana White said an immediate rematch was in order for Rousey, and Holm agreed. But with Rousey on a hiatus to film a pair of movies that was planned even before the Holm fight, Holm instead will fight Rousey rival Miesha Tate in the UFC 196 co-main event next month in Las Vegas. Rousey is expected to get the winner of that fight sometime later this year. White believes a Holm-Rousey rematch could be the biggest pay-per-view in the UFC’s history.
In the meantime, Rousey has continued her ascension as a massive crossover mainstream superstar. In January, she became the third women’s athlete to host “Saturday Night Live” on NBC, and the first MMA fighter to host.
Along with being a former women’s bantamweight champion, she’s also a movie star, talk show favorite, pitchwoman, activist, author, video game cover star, and now supermodel.
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