Ronda Rousey, UFC women's bantamweight champion, arrives at the ESPY Awards on Wednesday, July 15, 2015, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Paul A. Hebert/Invision/AP)
Undefeated UFC champion Ronda Rousey is relishing her time at the top as she mercilessly dispatches her opponents in mere seconds. She is seemingly unbeatable, and she uses that as fuel to motivate her.
“It’s motivating, because it’s something I have to keep earning,” she told SELF magazine recently. “When I was a kid, all I did was train. I never went to a dance, I never had a date, I never went to a single party. Training was my whole life, and it was because I wanted to be able to win the Olympics more than I wanted to go to the movies with my friends.”
It has paid off for Rousey as she will probably go down in history as one of the best fighters in the business. And she can only hope that when the history books write her name, they don’t mention gender.
“I want my name to be mentioned along with Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali. And I don’t want the word ‘woman’ to be in front of ‘champion,’” she said.
The 28-year-old also opened up about body-shamers and how she has learned to love her body.
"I've learned to appreciate all the forms it can take," she says in the magazine’s November issue, which features her on the cover. "I love feeling like I'm inhabiting the body of a ninja – like I could rob a liquor store with my bare hands if I wanted to – but I also like when I eat a little more, fill out and get a little bit curvier. I feel more feminine."
She added: "I want to see the standards that women hold themselves to change. In terms of looks, I feel like we’re given an impossible standard to live up to. It should be more diverse and show that every single woman can attain an attractive body just by being as healthy as possible. I don’t think that’s an impossible goal."
Rousey steps back into the octagon next month against Holly Holm.
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