Ronda Rousey wears nothing but body paint in 2016 Sports Illustrated swimsuit special

RONDA Rousey returns, not in the Octagon yet, but for Sports Illustrated magazine's swimsuit issue. And the always fierce Rousey is upping the ante this time.

Sports Illustrated confirmed her second appearance in the magazine's swimsuit edition on Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time) through a sneak peek on SI's Twitter account.

It's official! @RondaRousey will wear NOTHING BUT BODY PAINT for #SISwim2016. https://t.co/B08z7Ameh0 pic.twitter.com/fZ6lzYvr6F

— SI Swimsuit (@SI_Swimsuit) January 7, 2016

And the most revealing thing here is that the former UFC women's bantamweight champ joins a select few to wear nothing but body paint.

Rousey herself was proud and elated, adding that the paint job took 14 hours, as she shared a screenshot of the said tweet on her Instagram page.

Secret's out - so here's a free preview of this year's 2016 SI swimsuit issue ... I was one of the lucky few chosen to be a canvas for a hand painted masterpiece by @joannegair that took 14 hours to put on and photographed by the brilliant @fredericpinet - these are just behind the scenes shots taken with a phone's camera, can't wait to show you guys the final pics the when the issue hits stands! Link in bio ???? http://www.si.com/swim-daily/2016/01/06/ronda-rousey-si-swimsuit-2016-body-paint-leaked-photos

A photo posted by rondarousey (@rondarousey) on Jan 7, 2016 at 7:45am PST

"I was one of the lucky few chosen to be a canvas for a hand painted masterpiece," she wrote on the caption. "Can't wait to show you guys the final pics when the issue hits stands."

Sports Illustrated also shared one more behind-the-scenes snapshot on its website before its 2016 swimsuit special issue hits newsstands on February.