Ronda Rousey quote on leaving no option but victory

"The way that I like to fight is I like to paint myself into a corner and so the only way is for me to win."
- Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey: You're training to be the best in the world on your worst day

Ronda Rousey's mother had a great line which she fed to her daughter when she was coming up in Judo:

One of my mom's best lines is...You're not training to be the best in the world, you're training to be the best in the world on your worst day.

Ronda Rousey on not cutting corners

Ronda Rousey on not cutting any corners to be the greatest:

You want to be the best in the world you can't cut any corners. Why do you think swimmers shave their arm hair off? Because every little thing counts.

Ronda Rousey's mom on Making the World Better

In UFC 360 Magazine, UFC women's champion Ronda Rousey says that her mom (Ann Maria Rousey DeMars) taught her that her life's mission is to make the world a better place:

My mom has a lot of sayings, and one of them is, "Your mission in life is not to be happy. It is to leave the world better than how you found it." So I feel like I am finding my own way of doing that. 

Rousey has been able to leverage her fame into doing charity work for organizations such as FreeRice.com

Ronda Rousey and Georges St-Pierre on Courage

"I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it. The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear."

A quote by Nelson Mandela highlighting that fear is an essential part of being brave. UFC champions Georges St-Pierre and Ronda Rousey note the same thing. GSP likes that courage requires fear because it shows character in a person. Ronda also notes that it's her fears that allow her to demonstrate her courage. The two rely on one another.

Ronda Rousey on Performing under Pressure

Ronda Rousey during her Google Hangout chat describes that she fights best under pressure:

Every fight is the most important fight of my life...there's always an equal amount of pressure, which is the most that there's ever been. So that's just how I do it. I am fortunate in that I operate the best under pressure; I always perform above myself when the pressure's the highest.

Ronda Rousey on being the best she can possibly be

Ronda Rousey during her Google Hangout video interview was asked by Mike Chiappetta about what her thoughts are about coaching fighters on TUF 18 who will possibly challenging her for the title one day. Ronda's response was one that indicates she is not interested in totally reaching her absolute potential and wants to be pushed to the maximum by her competition:

I want these girls to get good, I want the standard to be raised, I want them to push me...Personally I perform better when the other person pushes me; if the other person doesn't really know they're getting into then I'm just going to win quick and I'll be done; and I'm capable of so much more than what I've shown, it's just these other girls haven't made me show it...I don't want to be champion because my competition wasn't good enough, I want to have the best competition possible and still be champion so why wouldn't I want to help my competition? It makes me even better. I want to be the best possible, I don't want to be as good as I have to be, like as minimally good as I have to be...I want it to be as hard as possible and for me to still be the best and no one can't say anything.

Ronda Rousey on her Maxim Shoot and Body Image

Ronda Rousey was asked (15:40) during this Google Hangout chat if magazines such as Maxim objectify women. Rousey had a pretty deep answer and commented about how she purposely came in heavier than normal for the shoot to try and make a statement about not putting out an impossible image of beauty out their for young girls to try and achieve and maintain:

I think it speaks to a truth of society is that we're sexual people, we're sexual beings. Human beings in general are sexual; to pretend that we're not is not doing us any justice or anything like that. And I think that Maxim emphasizes the sexuality of women but I don't think it objectifies them, and that's one of the reasons for the shoot I specifically got heavy for it. I was 143 for the ESPN Body Shoot and I was 151 for the Maxim shoot, and I did that on purpose; because when I was 14...the standard that I held myself to look like was what I perceived the guys my age to want and I saw all of them reading Maxim and stuff like that I never looked like any of those girls...I was not looking at Dove commercials to think what I should look like...So I was trying to think, okay, if I'm going to have any cultural impact at all then I'm going to have to change the idea of what's desirable in general. Because I look at all these girls doing Playboy and Maxim and all this stuff, they like cut weight for these shoots, they don't look like that all the time. And so you're purposely given an impossible standard to be, to be considered the industry standard of what's attractive, and of course if you're never going to be able to meet or maintain that standard, then you're going to buying and buying and buying more things to try and keep that. So I thought for the Maxim shoot that I was going to specifically go out of my way to not diet and go and do that shoot exactly how I'm walking around all the time. In fact I was actually a little bit heavier, and I think that actually has a positive impact, and it doesn't objectify women, it changes the standard of what they're expected to look like.

Wisdom from Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey has the skills, the looks, the wit, and the wisdom. It's no surprise she's reaching newer heights of stardom, and after TUF 18 and being on the same card as Chris Weidman / Anderson Silva 2 at UFC 168, that is going to be amplified much more.

Ronda Rousey on Complimenting Yourself

Why do people act like complimenting yourself is such a terrible thing?
— Ronda Rousey (@RondaRousey) August 4, 2013

Ronda Rousey has faced criticism for being arrogant and cocky by some of the fan base of mixed martial arts, but she takes the standpoint of why is complimenting yourself a bad thing? The other famous line from Rousey is "How dare you think I should think less of myself?" That viewpoint stems from dealing with a lot of insecurity and confidence issues growing up, overcoming them, and not wanting others to try and knock her down. Rousey admits she had confidence issues growing up and had to work hard to transcend those problems; so she's very adamant about taking the opposite approach and compliment herself and feeling better about herself in every way, shape, and form.

Extreme confidence can border into arrogance if one isn't careful; but that is more of an issue one's ego travelling up into another stratosphere. But that doesn't need to be the case. You can be confident and classy; believe in yourself without forcing that faith unto others; and walk tall without looking down upon the rest.

In any case, confidence can be a powerful tool.

Miesha Tate on respecting Ronda Rousey

One that that is very impressive about Miesha Tate is that even though her and Ronda Rousey have a strong rivalry and dislike for one another, Tate is objective about the doors Rousey has opened up for women's MMA and gives her a lot of credit. Many times if someone doesn't like another they can instantly negate all of the other person's characteristics as being flawed, but that isn't the case with Tate, who acknowledges what Ronda has done in the sport and the fact that because of Ronda, Tate pushes herself to be the best athlete and person she can be. Miesha Tate noted this in an interview with MMA Fighting's Ariel Helwani:

She's taken women's MMA to a whole new level and she's opened so many doors; like the ESPN shoot, I don't think I probably would have gotten that opportunity if it wasn't for her, and probably wouldn't be fighting in the UFC if it wasn't for her. Now she's opening doors to movies and things like that, so I feel like I'm just riding her heels and as much as I can't stand her personally, just because she's rude all the time, she makes it very hard for me to like her personally, doesn't meant that I don't really admire what she's done in this sport. And I do admire her in a sense; she motivates me, she inspires me to be the best person I could be, and be the best fighter I can be, and she tests me in every single way, so I'm definitely glad to have her in the sport.

One of the things that this sort of reminds me of is how Georges St-Pierre talks about his opponents. He notes that he must respect them because it is due to them that he is able to showcase his skills, earn a living, and be a martial artist. Without an opponent he does not exist as a fighter. GSP notes this in his book The Way of the Fight, he writes:

Before each one of my fights, I make a point of saluting my opponent. I salute the other fighter out of respect, even though he is trying to take something away from me. Not many people understand why I do this, but it’s simple: without the other guy, there is no me. That’s why I pray for the both of us, and not just myself. By stepping into the octagon, my adversary completes me. He makes my life possible. He becomes a part of my existence. To disrespect him is to disrespect myself. Thanks to him, I become a better man. Thanks to his presence, I am a true martial artist. Thanks to his willingness to face me, my life takes shape and moves forward, my path evolves and my life goal nears.

Ronda Rousey on why she's undefeated

No matter what is happening leading up to a fight, Ronda Rousey feels that champions still find a way to persevere and win:

I'm not undefeated because I had the perfect circumstances leading up into every fight. I'm undefeated because regardless of circumstances, I still win.

Ronda Rousey and Georges St-Pierre hug it out at UFC press conference

Ronda Rousey and Georges St-Pierre hug it out at 31:40 into this video. This was at the UFC World Tour New York City Press Conference

Quotes from the above fighters linked below:

Alexander Gustafsson
Jon Jones
Johny Hendricks
Georges St-Pierre
Cain Velasquez
Junior Dos Santos
Ronda Rousey
Miesha Tate

 

 

 

 

Ronda Rousey on being a topic of discussion

 

Ronda Rousey is comfortable being a controversial figure in mixed martial arts because it's something that brings a lot of attention to her:

I'd rather be...a topic to discuss instead of just...a topic to dismiss and agree upon.

Ronda Rousey on not fighting with emotion

For Ronda Rousey , fighting with anger or any other emotion can be a detriment to your ability to succeed. It comes to minimizing errors because the slightest mistake can lead to a humongous window of opportunity for your opponents, especially in a game of centimeters that is mixed martial arts. One mistake and the fight could be over. That's what makes mixed martial arts unique vis-à-vis other sports; that one technique finish. If somebody jumps over their opponents head and dunks on them in an NBA game in the first minute of competition, that's great but there's still 47 minutes of basketball left. If you get knocked out in a mixed martial arts fight in the first minute of action, the referee isn't going to wake you up, dust you off, and then send you off to finish the next 14 minutes of fighting. It's over. So staying calm and emotion-free can be a healthy attitude to take to minimize errors, and that's what Ronda Rousey strives to do in competition:

If you're fighting with emotion instead of structure, then it's always going to be a mistake.

Ronda Rousey's cherry blossom tattoo

Ronda Rousey explains the tattoo on her lower right arm, which is a symbol of the Kodokan, the first school of Judo.

It's a symbol of the first school of Judo. It's an eight-petal cherry blossom...They got the cherry blossom from the symbol of the Samurai, because the cherry blossom was a flower that dies in its prime, when it's at its most beautiful, it falls off of the tree and it dies. It just kind of embodies that warrior lifestyle to sacrifice yourself in your prime.

Click for more quotes by Ronda Rousey
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Quotes from MMA fighters:

Anderson Silva
Chael Sonnen
Fedor Emelianenko
Georges St-Pierre
Jon Jones
Ronda Rousey

Ronda Rousey on her mom

Ronda Rousey on her mother, Ann Maria Rousey:

My mother was the first American to ever win the world championships of Judo, and he really made me into who I am today. She really made me a fighter in every sense of the word.

Ronda Rousey on fighting bigger opponents

Ronda Rousey brings a confidence in his skills based on technique:

I personally think I can beat up anybody in the world, but I might get hurt against some people in the process. It's riskier the bigger the person is, but it's always possible with good technique.

UFC 168: Ronda Rousey vs Miesha Tate

Ronda Rousey and Miesha Tate will co-headline the UFC 168 card on December 28th, which features a main event between Anderson Silva and Chris Weidman. These two rematches are anticipated ones, especially the Weidman-Silva one which ended in stunning fashion with Weidman knocking out Anderson Silva in July at UFC 162.

Rousey holds a first round armbar victory over Tate, as she does against all of her opponents to date. The two have a strong dislike for one another, which boiled over on the set of The Ultimate Fighter, and should make for an interesting lead-up to the fight.

 

 

Ronda Rousey on Happiness

I never want my happiness to be related to something that I can't control.
- Ronda Rousey