Ronda Rousey Apear In UFC Champ in 2015
Ronda Rousey burst onto the women's MMA scene in August of 2010. Born in Riverside County, California on February 1, 1987 to parents Ron Rousey and AnnMaria DeMars, little Ronda was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around her neck that damaged her vocal chords. She didn't speak coherently until the age of six. Ronda was a self-professed tomboy and swam from the ages of 6 to 10. She competed on the Jr. Olympic swim team where she placed in the state level.
Because of her mother, a 7th degree black belt and 1984 World Judo Champion, Ronda took up the sport. She had a hard time socializing with other kids and found that Judo gave her confidence. She holds a 4th degree black belt in the martial art.
Ronda's Judo career is a storied one. At 17 she became the youngest judoka in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. That same year she won a gold medal at the World Junior Judo Championships in Budapest, and in 2006 she became the first U.S. female in almost 10 years to win an A-Level tournament going 5-0 to clench the gold at the World Cup in Great Britain. At 19 she won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships. She is the first U.S. athlete to win two Junior World Medals. In 2007 she added a silver at the World Judo Championships and a gold at the Pan American Games. The pinnacle of her Judo career was a bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Rousey became the first American to win an Olympic medal in women's Judo since it became an Olympic sport in 1992.
After medaling in the Olympics, Ronda's career hit a dead end. She did some bartending to make ends meet and tried to find a better paying job, but it was tough finding anyone that needed her particular skill set. Throwing people down and putting them in armbars aren't really something you can put on a resume. By chance Ronda caught the Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie fight on television and things changed.
She made her mixed martial arts debut as an amateur in 2010. Since then she has never lost a fight, winning the majority in the first round by armbar submission. Ronda took it upon herself to chase after and demand attention so that the UFC could no longer ignore women fighters. UFC President Dana White had publicly stated that women would never be allowed to fight in the UFC, but on February 23, 2013, Ronda did just that. She won the fight against Liz Carmouche in the first round with her signature armbar and became the first UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.
Ahead of her upcoming title fight, UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey has secured a spot in one of the year’s most popular magazine issues.
Rousey (10-0 MMA, 4-0 UFC), who meets Cat Zingano (9-0 MMA, 2-0 UFC) in UFC 184’s pay-per-view headliner on Feb. 28, is featured in the 2015 “Sports Illustrated” Swimsuit Issue.
Check out the photo above from the issue, which also includes other athletes.
Rousey discussed the spot with our friends at For The Win.
“The media directed at men with women is what women pay attention to the most,” the undefeated MMA fighter and former Olympic judo medalist told FTW. “When it came to what standard I gave myself growing up and what I thought that I should look like, I was looking at the women that I could see the men I wanted found attractive. I thought if this is what the guys I like like, then I should look like that. The ‘Sports Illustrated’ Swimsuit Issue wasn’t like ‘Playboy’ or all those others. It wasn’t so fake and plastic.”
“They always seemed to use a lot more real women, and as the years have gone on, I think that has increased and really affected how people perceive women and what they should look like. They use all kinds of body types and use real women, not genetic freakish gazelles of people that look beautiful, but it’s a very small percentage of the population that looks like that.”
Thurs 7 News Sport 2011
