Despite having stated it in a 2012 interview with Jim Rowe on Showtime, UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey's admission of engaging in pre-fight sex is the current talk of sports websites.
Rousey, scheduled to defend her title on Nov. 14 in Australia, was then quoted as saying, "I mean for girls it raises your testosterone, so I try to have as much sex as possible before a fight," reports Sportingnews. She repeated the same response in an interview with Conan.
Her undefeated status are indicators that the pretty MMA fighter may be right in her pre-fight strategy.
GQ notes, however, that it is an unwritten rule in sports for athletes to avoid sex days before a game, but Breakingmuscle cites a study by Geneva-based University Hospital that "sexual activity had no detrimental influence on the maximal workload achieved and on the athletes' mental concentration."
But the study adds that the recovery capacity of a sportsman could be affected if the athlete had sex two hours before a competition event. The research, though, only had male athletes as respondents.
The sports portal also points to another 1995 study that says having sexual intercourse 12 hours before competition would not affect maximum aerobic power, oxygen pulse or double product. Traver Boehm, a coach who discussed sex before a game in Breakingmuscle, says having sex the night before a competition is okay.
However, he points out if having sex affects an athlete's performance the following day, "then there's more than likely a larger problem with your health and conditioning." Boehm advises sportsmen and women in that situation to defer to common sense and try some self-experimentation.