MELBOURNE, Australia -- MMA star Ronda Rousey says she was acting in self-defense during a violent encounter with an ex-boyfriend that she recounted in her autobiography, which was published earlier this year.
Rousey said Friday she had consulted with her attorneys about the incident and that it could have been considered kidnapping.
"I was in that situation before when I was in a movie theater and my exit was blocked, people wouldn't let me out," Rousey said at media day for Saturday's UFC 193 at Etihad Stadium in which she will defend her bantamweight title against Holly Holm. "You legally cannot do that. It's considered a self-defense scenario.
"So if someone is blocking you into an apartment and won't let you leave, you're entitled to defend yourself and find a way out. If you're trying to get into your car and leave and they're grabbing your steering wheel and saying you can't leave, technically you're being kidnapped, and you can defend yourself in any way that is necessary."
Ronda Rousey has come under fire for a violent incident with an ex-boyfriend that she recounts in her autobiography. "I punched him in the face with a straight right, then a left hook," she wrote. Ed Mulholland for ESPN
Rousey has come under fire for a violent incident with an ex-boyfriend that she recounted in her autobiography, "My Fight/Your Fight." Rousey said the ex-boyfriend, whom she referred to only as "Snappers McCreepy," took nude pictures of her without her consent and blocked her from leaving his apartment after she confronted him about it.
"I punched him in the face with a straight right, then a left hook," Rousey wrote. "He staggered back and fell against the door."
The fight ended when Rousey walked out to her car and he jumped into the passenger seat, asking her to hear him out, she said.
"I walked around the car, pulled him by the neck of the hoodie again, dragged him onto the sidewalk and left him writhing there as I sped away," Rousey wrote.
What a woman!!!
Rousey: Pummeling of ex was in self-defense