Rousey agrees to short-term contract for greater long-term financial gain

On a day in which both UFC president Dana White and Ronda Rousey's manager Darin Harvey are busily refuting a recent report about Ronda Rousey's new contract,

Melissa Segura | Jan 7, 2013

Rousey agrees to short-term contract for greater long-term financial gain /

Former judo bronze medalist Ronda Rousey has dominated her six fights in mixed martial arts. Her new UFC contract could earn her unforeseen money. — Former judo bronze medalist Ronda Rousey has dominated her six fights in mixed martial arts. Her new UFC contract could earn her unforeseen money :: Neil Davidson/AP

On a day in which both UFC president Dana White and Ronda Rousey's manager Darin Harvey are busily refuting a recent report about Ronda Rousey's new contract, SI.com has learned of another misreported fact.

While White and Harvey are denying that Rousey has agreed to $75,000 per fight and a $75,000 win bonus in her contract, SI.com has learned from a source close to the negotiations that Rousey has signed on to fight six bouts instead of the initially reported eight.

Rousey's team wanted the shorter deal, the source says, because her camp believes her celebrity ? and thus, earning power ?will skyrocket with each win. The greater her popularity, the more leverage Rousey will have to command more money. The shorter contract will allow her to renegotiate and cash in more quickly.

The source admits the shorter-contract strategy is a gamble, but Rousey's record (6-0 professionally, with each win coming in the first round via armbar), makes her a relatively safe bet.

Harvey refuted that Rousey signed an eight-fight deal but declined to provide any more details of his client's contract. UFC spokesman Chris Costello said it is against UFC policy to disclose contract information.

The 25-year-old Californian and 2008 Olympic bronze medalist was crowned the UFC's first female champion last month in Las Vegas. Rousey and former Marine Liz Carmouche will star in the first female fight in UFC history on Feb. 23 when they headline UFC 156 from the Honda Center in Anaheim, Calif.

Published Jan 7, 2013

MELISSA SEGURA

Staff Writer, Sports Illustrated Staff writer Melissa Segura made an immediate impression at Sports Illustrated. As an undergraduate intern in 2001, her reporting helped reveal that Danny Almonte, star of the Little League World Series, was 14, two years older than the maximum age allowed in Little League. Segura has since covered a range of sports for SI, from baseball to mixed martial arts, with a keen eye on how the games we play affect the lives we lead. In a Sept. 10, 2012, cover story titled, The Other Half of the Story, Segura chronicled the plight of NFL wives and girlfriends caring for brain-injured players. In 2009 she broke the story that MLB had discovered that Washington Nationals prospect Esmailyn Gonzalez, who had been signed to a team-record $1.4 million bonus in 2006, was really Carlos Alvarez and he was four years older than he had claimed to be. Segura graduated with honors from Santa Clara University in 2001 with a B.A. in Spanish studies and communications (with an emphasis in journalism). In 2011, she studied immigration issues as a New York Times fellow at UC-Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism. Before joining SI full-time in 2002, she worked for The Santa Fe New Mexican and covered high school sports for The Record (Bergen County, N.J.). Segura says Gary Smith is the SI staffer she would most want to trade places with for a day. "While most noted for his writing style, having worked alongside Gary, I've come to realize he is an even more brilliant reporter than he is a writer."