UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will appear in the 2015 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue which hit shelves on Monday, February 9th.
Rousey will be the first ever mixed martial artist to appear in the issue and will appear alongside fellow athlete Caroline Wozniacki, who is currently ranked fifth in the world in singles tennis by the WTA.
Rousey, who posed nude for ESPN The Magazine’s Body Issue back in 2012, spoke to For The Win contrasting her experiences between the two spreads:
“The ESPN Body Issue is about celebrating the peak of human potential and the kind of form the human body, when specialized, can really look like. The Swimsuit Issue has a lot more [of a] sexual side to it, while I don’t think the Body Issue is overtly sexual whereas Sports Illustrated is. The difference in how I approached it is when I posed for ESPN Body, I really tried to be a lot more cut and a lot more close to my prime fighting shape because I was being photographed as a fighter and trying to look more like a fighter.
I purposely tried to get a little bit heavier for the SI issue so I was a little bit curvier and not in top fight shape look but the look at which I feel I’m the most attractive. It’s very natural for a person’s body to go through seasons.”
Rousey will headlined UFC 184 on Feburary 28th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, California to defend her women’s bantamweight title against number one contender Cat Zingano.
To see Rousey’s full Sports Illustrated spread, which was shot in the Captiva Islands on the Gulf of Mexico, click here.