Ronda Rousey
Ronda Rousey
Ronda Jean Rouseyis an American mixed martial artist, judoka, and actor. Rousey was the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo, which she won at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is the former UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion. She won twelve consecutive MMA fights, six in the Ultimate Fighting Championship, before suffering her first and only loss to Holly Holm; she won eleven of those fights in...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionMMA Fighter
Date of Birth1 February 1987
CityRiverside, CA
CountryUnited States of America
The thing that gets me up in the morning is that I’m really not ready to see someone that I know I can beat holding my belt.
I was in a weight-cutting sport, in judo, so I had to be a certain weight on a deadline. It kind of pushed me into having a really unhealthy relationship with food in my teens. I felt like if I wasn't exactly on weight, I wasn't good-looking.
I wear sunglasses almost all the time outside - not because I think I'm really, really cool, but because of the rays.
Judo was one of those sports where they give you guidelines but then try to tell you to develop your own style.
I'm selling a product, and I have to be out there; I don't have the option not to be.
I might make an investment and lose some money, but that's something I can recover from.
Some girls sit around and watch 'Gossip Girl' together. Me and my girlfriends watch 'Raw' and 'SmackDown.'
Somehow, people act like I have no competition, but the thing is, the competition is so good that it forces me to be better than I even thought was possible.
That's the thing I'm worst at: resting. I have to be forced to do it. Sometimes I think of loopholes. 'Oh, I'm just going for a walk, up a dune that's 45 degrees, but I'm walking, so it's not a workout.'
I was painfully shy for a long time. I mean, that's something I really had to work my way out of. And I really think it was because, after the 2008 Olympics, I spent a whole year bartending. It was the one thing that really forced me to be just not so scared to start conversations with strangers.
I wasn't always the most fashionable, and I would come to school with cauliflower ear and ringworm. I got made fun of a lot. People called me 'Miss Man' and 'Guns,' and people directed a lot of karate jokes at me. I wish that I was at school now that MMA and martial arts is cool, but back when I was in school, people associated it with nerdy stuff.
I wasn't allowed to throw big hooks and overhand rights until I'd been striking for three years. It's so you don't rely on those things from the very beginning. If your footwork sucks, and you can only stand in one place and throw your hands all crazy while the other person is running around, you're never going to be able to hit them.
I'm really encouraged by the progress I've seen with what they're doing with the women in WWE, but I feel like there's a lot more than can be done.
I love waking up to Sunday morning pancakes. The whole process of making them, just out in the kitchen together making pancakes on a Sunday morning; that's an experience every girl should have.