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See, for some reason, I feel like it's a victory if I wake up one minute before the alarm. It's like I'm in a contest with myself, with my foot kicking around until it wakes up the rest of my body. It's the stupidest thing. But it makes me feel like I've already won something.
Ronda Rousey
At the end of the day, I can't curl up with people's opinions.
I go mainly by the Dolce diet. It is a little hard to describe: it's not really a diet but more of a lifestyle. I eat throughout the day; I have three meals and two snacks, and it changes according to what I need at the time.
At 150 pounds, I feel like I'm at my healthiest and my strongest and my most beautiful.
People say to me all the time, 'You have no fear.' I tell them, 'No, that's not true. I'm scared all the time. You have to have fear in order to have courage. I'm a courageous person because I'm a scared person.'
I wear sunglasses almost all the time outside - not because I think I'm really, really cool, but because of the rays.
I was in a weight-cutting sport, in judo, so I had to be a certain weight on a deadline. It kind of pushed me into having a really unhealthy relationship with food in my teens. I felt like if I wasn't exactly on weight, I wasn't good-looking.
At home, I watch fights and documentaries - that's it. If it's not about the birth and death of stars, 'Frozen Planet', or someone getting punched in the face, I'm probably not watching it.
I grew up as an athlete doing judo, so I didn't really have a conventional, feminine body type.
Somehow, people act like I have no competition, but the thing is, the competition is so good that it forces me to be better than I even thought was possible.
I make fractals. They're like mathematical pictures. My stepdad is actually a rocket scientist, so in his free time, he gave me a fractal program for fun. He showed me how to use it when I was about nine or 10, and I made thousands of fractals.
A lot of people, once they become champion, they relax, kind of sit in the position and try to enjoy it. But I feel like everything I've ever worked for could be lost at any moment. I work harder and harder and harder, because I want to be farther ahead with every fight, and not worrying about these girls catching up to me.
I think it's hilarious if people say that my body looks masculine.
I like to be part of the change I want to see in the world. Not being afraid of criticism is actually a big advantage.
When I was in school, martial arts made you a dork, and I became self-conscious that I was too masculine. I was a 16-year-old girl with ringworm and cauliflower ears. People made fun of my arms and called me 'Miss Man.' It wasn't until I got older that I realized: These people are idiots. I'm fabulous.
When women say that going on publications directed at men is somehow demeaning, I don't think that's true. I think that's one really effective way to change the societal standard women are held to.
Reality TV is set up to make people entertaining. A good person with values and principles is not good television.
I was just a little three-year-old kid, and I loved Hulk Hogan. And when you're a three-year-old kid, you don't list off the reasons. I was just drawn to him. He was always my favorite, even in the video games and everything like that. He was the one that I always remembered and liked the most.
I respect Georges St. Pierre as a businessman and an athlete. I don't have anything against him personally. But he's not the kind of fighter I like watching.
Buffalo wings and cider is all I need.
I don't think politicians should be allowed to take money for their campaigns from outside interests.
I had to learn to take my time in MMA, and I was just able to keep a clear head.
I just want to tailgate, drink beer, and hang out in the middle of nowhere in a pick-up truck. That's my ideal date.
What I'm really looking to do is retire undefeated; I'm not sure when the right time to retire will be, but I know that I'm not done yet. Something still feels unfinished, and that's why I'm going to keep going.
There are so many ridiculous arguments that MMA is somehow anti-woman.
I'm selling a product, and I have to be out there; I don't have the option not to be.
I'm a big crier. I never cry when something is painful, but I cry if things are frustrating. Like if I'm trying to do something, and I mess up over and over. If I'm playing a video game, and I can't beat a level that I've tried 10 times, I'll cry. When I was a kid, I think I cried for every practice from 2003 to the middle of 2006.
My first injury ever was a broken toe, and my mother made me run laps around the mat for the rest of the night. She said she wanted me to know that even if I was hurt, I was still fine.
The Olympics is a once-in-a-lifetime thing. I was lucky enough to go twice, but most people only get one chance. And in judo you can train your whole life and it'll come down to a split second: You can lose everything or win anything.
There's something so zen-like and grateful of just ripping a hot wing apart and getting it all over your face, and everyone's happy. I love that atmosphere.
Most people get scared away from having an opinion. It's not so much my opinions everybody relates to, it's that I don't care about being punished for it.
When I looked at the state of women's MMA, what I saw was that it was missing rivalries or anything theatrical about it. Everybody was trying to be Miss America, unwilling to go under any kind of criticism, and taking the safe answers. I thought I needed to do whatever I could to get attention.
Judo was one of those sports where they give you guidelines but then try to tell you to develop your own style.
You go through every single inch of the emotional spectrum on fight week. You're the most stressed out you've ever been, you're the most pressured you've ever been, you're the happiest you've ever been - it's hard. It's exhausting.
I never really liked weightlifting because there is no problem solving, whereas when I am fighting, I am trying to solve a problem, so I don't think about being tired. I box, wrestle, do jujitsu, run up sand dunes; every single day is something different so that I am mentally engaged. That's what makes me want to train longer.
I'm unbelievably ticklish. When I was a little kid, my sisters would hold me down and tickle me until I peed my pants.
I'm scared of failure so much more than any of the other girls I compete against that I work so much harder than they possibly could. I'm totally down with spiders and frogs and heights and snakes - everything; I'm cool with it.
I was painfully shy for a long time. I mean, that's something I really had to work my way out of. And I really think it was because, after the 2008 Olympics, I spent a whole year bartending. It was the one thing that really forced me to be just not so scared to start conversations with strangers.
I had a lot of trouble speaking as a kid. I didn't really speak in coherent sentences until I was, like, 6 years old. There was a long time where everybody was very worried, because my sisters were so advanced for their age, and I would barely talk.
For me, MMA is like speed chess. It's like I'm herding a person into a certain position. Say my endgame is an arm bar. I'm not gonna actually take you and put you there. What I'm going to do is convince you that it's a good idea to move in the direction I want you to go.
Look at my face. Does it look like I can take a good hit?
The best way to take a punch is to look at it. Honestly. Someone could hit you with the hardest punch that they have, but as long as you see it, it's not going to knock you out. It's the punches that you don't see that knock you out. So you could get tapped with a small punch, but if you don't see it, you're out.
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.
Fighting is not a man's thing, it is a human thing.
I wasn't always the most fashionable, and I would come to school with cauliflower ear and ringworm. I got made fun of a lot. People called me 'Miss Man' and 'Guns', and people directed a lot of karate jokes at me. I wish that I was at school now that MMA and martial arts is cool, but back when I was in school, people associated it with nerdy stuff.
I go to bed every night thinking about all the possible ways that I can succeed.
Believe me, there's nothing I would like to do more than disappear for a while.
Mine's going to be the best book tour that ever happened!
A lot of my best clothes I buy at photo shoots because I don't have time to shop.
I only have so much ring time that my body can endure. I've had four surgeries on my knees, arthritis in my neck, separated my shoulders, broken my nose. I'm just gonna hope that science advances faster than I can deteriorate. Because what am I gonna do? Put a perfect body into the ground? What's the point of that?
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