UFC president Dana White has made it very clear that he is a big fan of Ronda Rousey. She's the first real female MMA star that Dana has shown an interest in and talked openly about bringing to the UFC at some point in the future.

So hearing him fawn over how great Ronda Rousey is wasn't really a surprise.

Here's what he had to say about the Strikeforce champ last week (Via MMA Fighting):

"I took Ronda Rousey to the Sons of Anarchy premiere the other day. And you know how Hollywood premieres are with (expletive) people lined up and down the streets. You got the red carpet," White told a group of media members last week in Las Vegas.

"So we pull up and you got all the Sons guys, and all the celebrities that are there from FX TV shows. We got out of the car and the whole (expletive) place started screaming 'Ronda, Ronda, Ronda,' like (expletive) crazy. Like a (expletive) Kardashian got out of the car.

"I was like holy (expletive) (expletive) this girl is right there."

....

"She's a (expletive) unique individual. She's like a Diaz brother," continued White, who said Rousey is actually in full-camp mode, training with the Diaz brothers, Nick and Nate, in Stockton despite the fact that she does not have a fight scheduled.

"She really is. Inside like a (expletive) dude trapped in this beautiful body. The reason I got interested in women's MMA is because of her ... everyone is like it's cause she's good-looking and 'Dana blah-blah.' Gina Carano is good-looking too. She's very pretty. There's (expletive) something different about Ronda Rousey."

Dana did go on to explain that he isn't sure that they can bring Ronda to the UFC because it would significantly disturb the way that women's MMA is structured.

Dana's reasoning is basically that the talent has very limited ways to move up in the sport and it would "shut down the path" for other women to get to Ronda.

And I do think there is a little bit of merit to that. Anyone who says that women's MMA doesn't have problems with depth is lying. I've watched the Invicta shows, they put out a good product and there are some good fighters. But the gulf between the very good fighters and the very mediocre is huge and there just isn't the depth yet to really flesh out divisions that are strong enough if you pull the talent across Invicta, Strikeforce and the UFC.

They'd have to shut down the Strikeforce women completely, which would basically be the final blow to the promotion and I just don't believe they're ready to pull that trigger yet.