Issue 111
February 2014
The tide turned against UFC star Ronda Rousey in 2013, with fans and observers busting her balls over her attitude and conduct on TUF 18.
Gareth A Davies
MMA and Boxing Correspondent for The Daily Telegraph, London, on the real Ronda Rousey away from the cameras
But earlier in the year, I wrote a feature for Fighters Only about fighters and the relationship they had with their mothers and how it had helped shape them.
And a conversation I had recently with AnnMaria Rousey DeMars, Ronda’s mom, really stands out.
I was taken with the apparent level of real honesty between mother and daughter, and it’s that type of honesty, as well as being a great fighter, that has made Ronda a star.
There has been so much written and talked about Ronda both during and after TUF 18. But nowhere is the truth as raw as from ‘Mom Rousey’ herself.
She describes her daughter as “fairly well grounded” and believes the media representation of Ronda suffered in some ways because of TUF. And Mrs Rousey talks sense.
Just a couple of weeks ago, the judo and martial arts legend Gene LeBell told me just how remarkable he believes AnnMaria is, and how she’s been the making of Ronda, having never tried to crush her wild, warrior spirit.
And the special relationship they have became apparent when Mrs Rousey DeMars admitted that the world, and all her commitments, do get on top of Ronda at times.
“She’ll confide every now and then and I’ll say, ‘You know, you say you’re exhausted. You know who’s really exhausted? Your sister. The woman
who works full-time and has two children under six. Or your other sister who teaches inner-city school kids and has 200 children counting on her and comes home and grades papers left, right and centre. She’s exhausted. You know you say you’re tired – you’re having a good time.’”
But as AnnMaria also knows, every job has its disadvantages and advantages, and Ronda “has more of both than most people.” So true.
Rousey the personality, the game wrecker, the fighter, has genuine star qualities. But perhaps the most amazing of all is her honesty. So much so that it can be excruciating to watch at times.
Here’s her mother talking again, about the criticism her daughter receives: “I think that sometimes it gets to her. I’ve always told her not to read all the comments people leave about her on the internet.
“But sometimes she does read them and sometimes it hurts. But she’s young. She tries her best not to be cruel to people and to help them out. She tells it like it is; with honesty.”
And yet there is the other side of her. I’ve witnessed this myself, too, being around Ronda.
Her mother explained: “Everybody talks about how Ronda’s so mean and Miesha’s so nice, but do you know what Ronda did? She ran two fundraisers off her fan site, one to raise money for an injured boxer, another to raise money for these kids on a judo program to send four of them, plus their teacher, to the national championships. Then she heard they needed to send a fifth kid and so she paid the $500 on her credit card.
“But people seem to just focus on the Ronda they see on the TV. The fundraising probably just isn’t as interesting as the Ronda who wants to ‘punch Miesha in the face.’”
And then there’s the Ronda who cries a lot, as her mother revealed: “Ronda’s sister was at a teachers’ meeting with me the other day and people were talking about the TUF show and how Ronda cries and that it must be so hard to watch.
“Her sister said, ‘Are you kidding me? She’s Ronda. One day we were watching TV at my mom’s house. I wanted to watch All About Eve and Ronda wanted
to watch Toy Story 2, or something, and I got to the remote first and Ronda burst into tears.’
“One of the other teachers was like, ‘Oh, was this when she was eight years old?’ And my daughter said, ‘No, she was 19!’
“So you know, Ronda just cries over everything. I’m not kidding.”
There is a pride in the fact that Ronda has succeeded. Her mother did not want her to go in to MMA, instead wanting her to study marine biology. But here’s the honesty again: AnnMaria can admit she was wrong.
And she can also admit that her daughter can hold a grudge.
“I do talk to people she competes against and we get along fine,” explained AnnMaria, “but if Ronda hates you it’s forever. But that’s good for her as a competitor.”
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: we denigrate the genuine stars in MMA at our peril. Make the most of them while they’re with us, because you’ll miss them when they’re gone.
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