The
Ultimate Fighter 18 (TUF18) was supposed to be a “history making” event, The1st
season to ever have female fighters in “The Ultimate Fighter House”, It was supposed
to be more about the fighters, their families and their journeys leading to
TUF18; but instead the lovely folks in suits trying to make ratings higher and
a bigger buck decided to make it into an extreme editors paradise by turning
Ronda Rousey into a villain; FoxSports1& UFC, I love y’all, but not cool!
What they failed to highlight was the pure dedication and heart that Ronda
& her coaching staff put into #TeamRousey throughout taping, all the extra
time Ronda invested into “The Kids” (as she playfully called them) making them
all feel like family by having cookouts to ease the homesickness, and even
bringing Father’s Day gifts to ALL of the daddy’s in the house; yes even those
on a rival team. Fighters on both teams were so impressed by Ronda’s realness
and true champion heart that they are now part of Armbarnation out in Cali. In
my opinion Ronda was far from any kind of bully on the show, she was given an opportunity
to help support her peers in making another piece of history in the UFC and did
the best she could under very stressful and obnoxious conditions at times. If
you were to ask any one of the members of her team if they were satisfied with
their coach, I’m almost positive they all will say heck yes!
I
wanna try and get you to see another side to Ronda Rousey, not who the editors
on the show portrayed her to be, but the big hearted, competitive, shy badass
who has overcome enough to make a grown man buckle at the knees. Knowing a
little history on Ronda may change your negative views on her. It was 1987, the
year that the world welcomed the future UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion.
Ronda was born on February 1st in California to daddy Ron Rousey
& momma AnnMaria De Mars (1st American to win a world Judo
Championship by the way). Ronda was born into this world already training in
MMA it seemed; her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck just like a Rear
Naked Choke, and I’m sure although the Dr. was the one to cut the umbilical cord,
it was Lil Ronda holding it off with an Armbar till help arrived. Having the
cord around her neck caused a lack of oxygen which in turn caused problems with
her speech throughout childhood. Kids repeatedly teased & bullied her because
of it, which made Ronda even shyer than what she was. At 6 she took up
swimming, something her dad and her did regularly, something which Ronda called “Their Thing”, he would even take Ronda to her
swim meets. Ron told his daughter she’d win the Olympics one day, but he would
never see her do so, Ron took his own life when Ronda was 8, changing Ronda’s
life forever. AnnMaria knew her daughter could benefit from a hobby and knew
that she needed something to help channel all those emotions from losing her
dad, so AnnMaria started to let Ronda take Judo at the age of 11.
After
a few years of training, Ronda had joined the United States Olympics Judo Team
and by the age of 17 she had qualified for the 2004 Olympics. Although she
didn’t place she was the youngest to compete; that same year Ronda won Gold at
the World Junior Judo Championships. You would think that competing in the
Olympics and winning numerous awards would be enough for any 20 year old, not
Ronda… She put her focus on her dad’s words of winning the Olympics... she did
just that; Ronda shook off the pressure of being Judoka AnnMaria’s daughter and
won a bronze medal at the 2008 Olympics.
At the very young age of 21 Ronda decided it was time for her to move on
in life and retired from Judo.
Ronda
really didn't see herself joining the corporate world so she entered the world
of MMA at 22, and given Ronda’s super competitive nature and true champion’s
heart, she spent every minute trying to perfect her craft. After only a few
amateur fights Ronda announced her plans to turn pro at only 24, Armbar wins over WMMA greats such as Charmaine
Tweet and Julia Budd proved Ronda was a force to be reckoned with and on March
3rd, 2012 Ronda seriously dislocated long-time rival Miesha Tate’s elbow with an Armbar
to become Strikeforce’s Women’s Bantamweight Champion. Ronda was quickly
becoming the talk around town and it wasn’t long before it was announced that
Ronda would become the 1st Female EVER to be signed to the UFC and
on February 23, 2012 Ronda Rousey & Liz Carmouche made History by becoming
the first females to ever fight in the UFC Octagon. Ronda beat Liz by Armbar in
the first round making her the UFC’s Women’s Bantamweight Champion and bringing
Ronda’s record to 7-0. Now we fast forward to December 28, 2013, today
will settle a long rivalry between Ronda and Miesha Tate. Miesha has made it a
point to down play Ronda’s talent and abilities leading up to this fight along
with Ronda’s character and Ronda has done the opposite by giving Miesha props
on her athletic talents, yet Ronda is labeled the mean one… Rubbish! Moral of
my story here is as cliché as it gets “Don’t judge a book by its cover, and get
to know the fine print”. Enjoy the fight everybody!
