Rowdy Rousey: Ronda Rousey's Fight to the Top

By Mike Straka and Chael Sonnen

Already a superstar in the MMA and entertainment worlds, Ronda Rousey's devastating 34-second KO of Bethe Correia vaulted her into the mainstream like never before. From her undefeated exploits in The Octagon to appearing on the cover of Sports Illustrated to starring in blockbuster film Furious 7, Rousey is the preeminent combination of athletic and pop culture stardom. Rowdy Rousey is the ultimate tribute to this multi-talented powerhouse. Including nearly 100 full-color photographs, fans are provided a glimpse into this star's life - from her days as a young Judo champion at the Olympics to her ascent to the top of MMA as the UFC champion. This keepsake also explores Rousey's vast success outside of the ring through acting, modeling and interacting with her great fans, and looks ahead to her upcoming film roles and future UFC blockbuster fights.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Triumph Books
• Release date: Dec 1, 2015
• ISBN: 9781633194441

Mike Straka

Mike Straka is the vice president of operations and executive producer for FOXNews.com, but he is best known as the author of the wildly popular online column Grrr! for FOXNews. He also hosts The Real Deal, an irreverent webcast dealing with entertainment and popular culture. He lives in New Jersey with his wife, daughter, two cats, and a dog.

Book preview

This book is dedicated to my daughters, Maxine and Olive; I hope that Ronda Rousey’s story inspires you to not only believe in yourselves, but to dream big and love your life. And to Renzo Gracie, for always inspiring me to be better every day, and for allowing your academy to be my second home.

Ronda Rousey confronts Stephanie McMahon during a surprise, explosive appearance at Wrestlemania XXXI, on March 29, 2015 in Santa Clara, California.

Contents

Foreword by Chael Sonnen

Introduction: Interviewing the Baddest Woman on the Planet

1. The Champ Is Here

2. Unfinished Business

3. Growing Up Rousey

4. Building Women’s MMA

5. Ronda Goes to Hollywood

6. Ronda in Her Own Words

Acknowledgments

Ronda Rousey gets focused prior to her UFC 157 battle with Liz Carmouche.

Foreword by Chael Sonnen

Ronda Rousey is an inspiring woman who set a goal to achieve in an industry that didn’t exist.

She sacrificed everything to perfect a skill, just for the sake of being great. There was no fame, there was no money, there was not even a platform.

Let me remind you, the UFC, until just recently, vowed to never have women in MMA.

The martial arts, throughout the history of time, have largely been folklore. The heroes that you have heard about from Chuck Norris to Bruce Lee are wimps and frauds and charlatans, as it pertains to actually being able to physically dominate an opponent in hand to hand unarmed combat.

You will often hear about a guy who knows secret moves, trains in an undisclosed location, and has learned a skill that was passed down from his great grandfather. Everything you’ve ever heard about as it pertains to these types of mythical figures, are skills that are actually possessed by Ronda Rousey.

Chael Sonnen flexes during the weigh-in for UFC Night 26 in August 2013.

The most successful people in the world will tell you, Don’t do it for the money, follow your passion, and the money will take care of itself. That is truly what happened with Ronda. She had no master plan. She only had a goal and a vision of being the best at what she does.

Present time looks very favorably upon Ronda. She is an icon, a star, and a champion. But like a fine wine she will only get better with time. She paved the way for women everywhere on an international level. People aspire to be like her. Men and women study her films to learn her techniques. But the story of Ronda Rousey should not be one about victories and armbars.

The story should be about a woman with a dream, who persevered at all costs, and changed not only a sport, but a gender forever.

—Chael Sonnen

Introduction: Interviewing the Baddest Woman on the Planet

In 2012 Ronda Rousey was preparing to fight Miesha Tate for the Strikeforce world women’s bantamweight title on the Showtime premium cable network. I was co-host on Spike TV’s MMA Uncensored Live, and was invited to Rousey’s training camp to do an interview.

I had already had an interview with Tate in the can, in which Tate made appearances at various Las Vegas fight shops, signing autographs and smiling for pictures with dozens of fans everywhere she went. She was relishing the attention a fight with Rousey was providing, both from fans and media, and she was doing a great job handling it all.

When I arrived with my camera crew at Rousey’s gym, to say the future Baddest Woman on the Planet was not happy to see me would be an understatement. While her fight manager and her BJJ trainer both told me everything was good to go, somehow my interview subject was never informed.

To her, it looked like an ambush.

There she was, grappling with men, sweating and bleeding in between bouts of tears, and she was cleaning the mat with them. She was doing an ironman drill, where every minute or so a fresh grappler would jump in. This went on for 30 minutes as my camera crew and I milled about.

With every tap, Rousey would get up and glare at me.

It was unnerving, to say the least. Suddenly, one of the men accidentally kneed Ronda in the crotch. She screamed in pain and tears welled up in her eyes. I’m sorry, he said. Ronda went red.

Don’t you ever say sorry to me again, she said through sobs. Let’s go.

Immediately as the two locked arms, Ronda executed one of the most beautiful Harai Goshis I’ve ever seen in my life. A Harai Goshi is a sweeping hip toss, where a judo player sweeps the leg while simultaneously throwing someone down over one’s hip. It’s quick and looks like the stuff of action movies. Ronda finished the throw with her now-patented armbar, and he tapped.