$13,000,000
Ronda Rousey
Net Worth
Born in (City)
Riverside
Born in (Country)
U.S.A.
Date of Birth
01st December, 1987
Date of Death
-
Mother
AnnMaria De Mars
Father
Ron Rousey
About
Ronda Jean Rousey is an American mixed martial artist, wrestler, actress, Olympian, and farm owner who has changed the face of legal fighting sports forever. Through her social media handles, she regularly keeps her fans updated about her life on the Browsey Acres farm that she shares with her UFC fighter husband Travis Browne and his children from another marriage-Kaleo and Keawe. She has 1.08 million dedicated viewers (subscribers) on YouTube, and is followed by 13 million users on Instagram, and also has a substantial base of 3.5 million followers on Twitter. She is of English, Polish, Trinidadian, and Venezuelan descent. Her nicknames in the sporting world include Rowdy, The Rowdy One, The Arm Collector, and the Armbar Assassin.
Early Life
Ronda’s early life was tragic right from the start. During her birth on 1st February 1987 in Riverside, California, her umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck that led to her brain not getting enough oxygen, thus almost killing her and causing slight but significant damage to it. This damage led to her suffering from Apraxia, a neurological disorder characterized by speech problems. Due to this, when she was just 3 years old, her ex-military father Ron Rousey and MBA mother AnnMaria De Mars, moved their family to Jamestown in North Dakota where they could settle close to a special care center that gave her access to speech therapy. She could not utter an intelligible word till she was 6. Furthermore, when she was 4, Ronda, along with her older sisters Maria and Jennifer went sledding with their sports-loving father and he met a tragic accident. After learning that a rare blood disorder called Bernard-Soulier syndrome would now allow him to heal his broken back properly and that he would become paraplegic regressing to a quadriplegic, he committed suicide when she was just 8.
All this had a profound impact on Ronda’s early childhood leading to her struggling at properly integrating into the school society. Although she was significantly better at math and science than her peers, it was sports where she would find her comfort and confidence in. Since she was 6, she had been swimming but after her father’s passing, judo became her sport. Ronda’s mother AnnMaria, the first American woman to win the World Judo Championships in 1984, started to really train her in the art of judo in 1998 when she was just eleven years old with the help of Trace Nishiyama, head of the Venice Judo Club.
Road to Success
She finally made her professional MMA debut in March 2011, gloriously defeating Ediane Gomes with an armbar submission within 25 seconds at “king of the Cage: Turning Point”. In August 2011, she made her debut at “Strikeforce” in Las Vegas Nevada, where she forced Sarah D’Allelio into a technical submission with her armbar, again at 25 seconds. Ironically, she was criticized by some for informing the referee to stop the match because the crying Sarah’s elbow was beginning to break- the reason for the criticism being that it showed her soft spot and not her killer instincts! Regardless, people were starting to recognize her not only for being a formidable fighter, but they also began to know her for her signature armbar move which when executed properly, always granted her definite victory.
Then came the fight that would change not only the world of female fighting but also that of UFC forever. Challenging her longtime public rival wrestler Miesha Tate, the then ’Strikeforce’ Women’s Bantamweight Champion, she and Miesha had created such a buzz around their fight that they actually became the headliners in 2012 for the Strikeforce match. Come March 2012 in Columbus, Ohio, within 4 minutes and 27 seconds of the duel, Tate was in Ronda’s armbar lock and got her elbow dislocated before submitting, thus resulting in Rousey becoming the new Bantamweight champion. The most significant impact from this match was on the CEO of the UFC league, Dana White, who in the previous year in 2011 had made known his reservations on women fighting in the brutal UFC. However, by the time the epic 2012 match was over, he was ready to change his mind and Ronda became the first female to be signed into the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Challenges
Despite events in her early life that she could have used as a crutch and an excuse to just live life as it is, Ronda Jean Rousey fought through her physical and mental struggles to aim high, work hard and excel to come out on top of her peers, even in the professional fighting world.
Ronda was subjected to a special care center that gave her access to speech therapy. She could not utter an intelligible word till she was 6. Furthermore, when she was 4, Ronda, along with her older sisters Maria and Jennifer went sledding with their sports-loving father and he met a tragic accident. After learning that a rare blood disorder called Bernard-Soulier syndrome would now allow him to heal his broken back properly and that he would become paraplegic regressing to a quadriplegic, he committed suicide when she was just 8. With the loss of her father, she has struggled to find her place in the world she lived in.
Failures
This was the beginning of the creation of Ronda’s anti-fan base. In her fight with Holly Holm in 2015 in UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, the weaknesses in Ronda’s MMA training were beginning to surface. Ronda struggled with Holm's left hits in the first round, and when the second round came, at 59 seconds, Holm’s kick and Ronda’s head connected resulting in Holm’s first knockout in UFC. This defeat of the female UFC pioneer and till then-undefeated champion marked the rise of a new generation of elite female fighters, and they were now very aware of Ronda’s go-to armbar maneuver and also the incompetence of her trainer Edmond Tarverdyan. By December 2016, when UFC 207 rolled in, no one would have predicted that this would be Ronda’s last UFC fight. Her opponent, the Brazilian power hitter Amanda Nunes, was fully aware of all these weaknesses and pummeled Rousey’s face with her fists taking her out in just 48 seconds. In a post-match interview, Nunes blamed Rousey’s coach for allowing her to think she could box well. Rousey’s mother AnnMaria also blamed Edmond, calling him an incompetent fraud whom Ronda should never have trusted. A couple of months after the fall of the champion, when UFC’s Dana White hinted on Ronda’s UFC departure, Nunes, perhaps blaming her own prideful and boisterous post-game antics for Ronda’s discouragement and departure, apologized to her, the UFC, and the fans. Many UFC fans at this point began to see Ronda as someone who could not handle defeat well.
Achievements
In 2007, she won the silver medal in ‘World Judo Championships,’ bronze medal in ‘German Open,’ gold medal in ‘Pan American Games,’ and bronze medal in ‘Pan American Championships’ in judo.|She won the bronze medal in women's 70 kg tournament in judo at the 2008 ‘Summer Olympics.’|She is the first ‘UFC’ Women's Bantamweight Champion, a title she won in December 2012.|In 2014, she won three ‘Wrestling Observer Newsletter’ awards—‘Best Box Office Draw,’ ‘Most Outstanding Fighter,’ and ‘MMA Most Valuable Fighter.’
Quotes
- Life is a fight from the minute you take your first breath to the moment you exhale your last.
- If you can't dream big, ridiculous dreams, what's the point in dreaming at all?