Still a teenager, she was forced to overcome further obstacles as a result of her performance in the Olympics. She was overmatched by her more experienced opponents and finished in ninth place. Ronda refused to let end without winning any medals, however. She had one last chance to win one when she competed in Budapest, Hungary, at the World Junior Judo Championships. She beat out all the competition at the event, taking first place and winning the gold medal.
As Ronda prepared for the Olympics in Beijing, she excelled in the international judo circuit. She became the first female in almost 10 years to win an A-level tournament in judo when she took the gold medal at the Birmingham World Cup in Great Britain. Earlier in the year, she won the silver medal at the World Judo Championships.
When she arrived in Beijing for the Olympics, Ronda was determined not to forget her disappointing experience four years earlier in Greece. Her goal was to win a medal, something no other US female judoka had done since judo became an Olympic sport in She ended up winning five of her matches while competing in the 70 kg division. She defeated Annett Boehm of Germany to claim the bronze medal. After winning the bronze medal at the Olympics, Ronda returned home to California and retired from judo.
She assumed Olympic success would improve her financial situation, but it didn't. She left her mother's home in California to figure things out with no money and no plan. She needed a job, so she became a cocktail waitress at the Redwood Bar and Grill, a pirate-themed bar in Los Angeles.
At the time, Ronda shared a small apartment with a friend and drove a car that didn't even have air conditioning in California! During this time in her life, money was extremely tight for Ronda. Her diet often consisted of ramen noodles served cold because the hot water had been shut off in her apartment. Both cigarettes and marijuana became a regular part of her routine. For a time, she even lived in her car. While she admitted to the Los Angeles Daily News that things got pretty bad for her, she also insisted she never felt sorry for herself.
While she worked at 24 Hour Fitness, Ronda began training in mixed martial arts. Fighting had always been in her DNA, and she soon developed an obsession with the sport. With her background in judo, the transition to MMA came easy, but she still had a lot of training to do in those early days. Ronda told Esquire that every spare moment of thought in those days circled back to fighting.
She said she liked to shadow box with droplets of water in the shower, just so she could use every moment she had to improve. After training for months, Ronda made her MMA debut.
The move became synonymous with Ronda, as she also used it to defeat her next two opponents. With an undefeated record as an amateur, she faced a dilemma. If Ronda wanted to turn pro, she would have to fight for smaller promotions or take up boxing instead.
Faced with trying to figure out a way to make a living with MMA, Ronda was at a crossroads. Ronda Rousey went pro in and signed with King of the Cage. It was a big break for her. King of the Cage wasn't a well-known promotion at the time, but it was a starting point. Ronda only needed 25 seconds to subdue her opponent via armbar in her professional debut. She continued to dominate her opponents and win in quick succession throughout At that point, she was quickly becoming the face of women's combat sports.
Eventually, rumors began to spread that the UFC was considering signing Ronda as its first-ever female fighter. The Strikeforce bantamweight championship was absorbed by the company and became the UFC bantamweight title, making Rousey the first-ever female UFC champion. Ronda wasted no time becoming the sport's biggest star. She is so perfect in every way! She makes me so happy! She is my other half! FB Tweet More. You'll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.
I was just being honest. Hard history: Ronda's father and grandfather both killed themselves, and she said that their deaths greatly affected her family. A fighter: She and her dad was close; he took her to buy her first doll, which was a Hulk Hogan doll. Helping out: Her honesty on Ellen last week surprised many, but Ronda has talked about suicide and her involvement with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services in the past.
To help destigmatize talking about suicidal thoughts, she added, she does a lot of work with Didi Hirsch Mental Health Services, a free mental health clinic in LA. In , the clinic awarded her an Erasing the Stigma Leadership Award. Didi Hirsch also works with girls struggling with eating disorders, another issue Ronda struggled with in the past.
Ronda also briefly touched on a possible rematch against Holly, saying that she hopes the current champion wins her fight against Miesha Tate at UFC in March — because Ronda wants the chance to win the belt back from her personally. Competitive: Ronda also said that she hopes Holly left beats Miesha Tate right in their March fight so she has the chance to take the belt from Holly herself. For her part, Holly has spoken out to say that she hopes Ronda would never actually get so far as to hurt herself, even if she can't relate to the feelings of depression herself.
Holly's comments were certainly more sensitive to ones that Bethe Correia made before her famous fight against Ronda last year. Ronda, of course, beat Bethe in just 34 seconds, but not before writing on Twitter: 'Suicide is no joke or selling point. My father will be with me the day I hand you the comeuppance you deserve.
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Ronda Rousey reveals her heartbreak after both her father and grandfather committed suicide, as she vows to speak candidly about her own battle with depression The year-old said last week that she thought about killing herself after her defeat by Holly Holm in November In a new interview, she voiced surprise that people made a big deal about her comments She said she hopes discussing suicide will soon carry less of a stigma, because having those feelings is nothing to be ashamed of Ronda's dad killed himself when she was eight, and his father also took his own life For more of the latest on Ronda Rousey visit www.
Share this article Share. Rousey continued her run of domination after turning pro in the sport, reeling off four straight wins in under a minute apiece.
By this point, Rousey had become a crossover star with her good looks and penchant for first trash-talking and then brutally dispatching her opponents. After one more speedy victory, Rousey was the first woman to sign with the Ultimate Fighting Championship, the world's largest mixed martial arts league. Designated Bantamweight Champion, she successfully defended her belt in the inaugural UFC women's bout in February , submitting Liz Carmouche via her patented armbar in four minutes and 49 seconds, her longest fight at that point.
In the summer of , Rousey appeared in another sexy photo spread, for Maxim. At the end of , she won a rematch with Tate that extended to the third round, suggesting she was losing her touch as the dominant force of the UFC women's circuit.
When she returned to the UFC Octagon, Rousey won four consecutive first-round victories, two of them coming in under 20 seconds. However, her reign finally ended with a second-round knockout by Holly Holm in November The surprising loss sent ripples through the sporting world, and presented Rousey with her first serious athletic challenge since her days of competitive judo. Over a year after her stunning loss, Rousey attempted a comeback on December 30, at UFC , facing off against reigning champion Amanda Nunes.
However, Nunes defeated Rousey in just 48 seconds. Rousey did not comment immediately following the stunning loss, but UFC president Dana White spoke about her reaction in an interview with ESPN's SportsCenter: "I went backstage after and hung out with her for probably minutes," White said.
She's very competitive. She does not like to lose. She loves to win, and she loves to do what she sets out to do.
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