Ronda Rousey has not held back in her criticisms aimed at the UFC and how fighters are treated by her former employers as she prepares to make her comeback for a fight against Gina Carano on May 16.
In one of her most viral comments, Rousey used UFC flyweight champion Valentina Shevchenko as an example for fighters being underpaid when she said that’s “why so many of their top athletes are leaving to go and find pay elsewhere, it’s why their champions like Valentina are selling pictures of their titties on OnlyFans.” Shevchenko fired back almost immediately defending her OnlyFans page while adding that Rousey “slept too long after her last fight in 2016” when she was knocked out by Amanda Nunes.
BKFC star Taylor Starling was one of the first athletes to embrace OnlyFans as a way to make supplemental income and while she fundamentally agrees that fighters are underpaid, she could only scoff at Rousey trying to use that as an insult to anybody including Shevchenko.
“As a whole, there’s plenty of women I don’t like but at the end of the day we’re all trying to do the same thing: Provide for our families,” Starling told MMA Fighting. “Work hard and be good people. I think we can do without tearing each other apart.
“Now do I wish that in the fighting industry that we made more money so we didn’t have to do things like that? Of course. But it is a blessing and I can’t take your opinion to the bank. If you are not paying my bills and you’re not the man laying by me in my bed or the woman laying next to me in my bed, then your opinion is nothing to me.”
Starling, who returns to action on Wednesday’s Blood4Blood card in Florida, admits starting her OnlyFans page actually afforded her a better life and finally allowed her to focus on training and fighting full time, which is something she just wasn’t able to do previously.
“I was working three jobs, I had a piece of shit car that was on the verge of breaking down and I was going to have no car, couldn’t pay my bills,” Starling said. “[OnlyFans] put me in a position to train full-time, to buy a new vehicle and to provide for my children.
“At the end of the day, that’s all it’s about. As long as my kids are fed, happy and taken care of, like I said, you can’t take an opinion to the bank.”
Of course, Starling knows that Rousey isn’t the first fighter to use OnlyFans as a way to take a dig at another athlete but she’s never understood why using that platform is supposed to be an insult.
Starling has faced similar criticism from some of the fighters on the BKFC roster as well but then the promotion actually signed a sponsorship deal with OnlyFans, which is obviously paying the bills for everybody competing there.
“Sometimes I just feel like people have to go for low blows,” Starling said. “There’s a couple of women in bare-knuckle who also talk shit about the OnlyFans thing but then this is the thing — there are times that OnlyFans has been a sponsor on the ring paying the check that you get at the end of the night. So I’m like do you really hate it that much? Because you’re taking that check and putting it in your bank account the next day.
“There are much more things that people do on OnlyFans than just show their boobs. It’s just a way for people do what they want to do. Keep your nose out of my business. That’s it and I’ll keep my nose out of yours. That’s how I feel about it.”
It’s unlikely that Rousey is the last high profile fighter to bring up OnlyFans while promoting a fight but Starling really isn’t bothered by it anymore.
Rousey can live her life and make money how she chooses and Starling is going to do the same.
“You just have to be confident in who you are and what you do,” Starling said. “At the end of the day, if you’re not hurting anybody and you’re happy and your home’s happy, then f*ck it. Who cares?”
