Ronda Rousey Comments On Being A “Proper Sexual Role Model”

WWD: You are closing in on a major activewear and sneaker endorsement deal. In the meantime, how did the Buffalo David Bitton deal come together? Ronda Rousey: I purposefully have been holding out a long time on the apparel side of sponsorship. It was worth giving up lots of money that had been offered to me in order to pick exactly the right sponsor at the right time. Buffalo Pro was the perfect thing because they never had a woman, and there had never been any MMA athlete who had a sponsored fashion deal at all. So, I was excited to jump all over it. I got so many cool clothes. I was looking around and said to my roommate the other day, “Jesus Christ, why haven’t I gotten a fashion sponsorship sooner?” WWD: How long do you usually work out? R.R.: If I am training only once a day, I will train for three hours straight. It has a lot to do with my coach because he knows I will keep training until I drop. It’s until I get cut off — I would keep going forever if they let me. Overtraining is my biggest problem. I always have to have someone watching me so that I make sure I stop. WWD: How did you first get into martial arts? R.R.: My mother was the first American to win the world championships in judo, back in 1984. She did that working as an engineer, a single mother and getting her Ph.D. She’s the most amazing person I have ever met. When we moved back to California, she visited teammates who had opened clubs of their own. I tagged along and tried out. From the first day I tried it, I loved it, and six years later, I was on my first Olympic team. WWD: What do most people misunderstand about what you do? R.R.: People have a very hard time seeing the art of it. It’s called “martial arts” because that really is what it is. It’s not just brawling and throwing your hands. There’s a sweet science and a beauty to it that you really have to be close to and immersed in to see. On the outside, it just looks like violence and gore, but, on the inside, you see two people competing against each other in the most honest of settings. When every single layer is pulled back in a fight, that is the time when you are your truest self and you really learn the most about yourself, mentally and physically. It’s all about trying to outsmart the other person. It’s not really about being stronger or faster. WWD: What’s the end game? R.R.: When I fight, I think, “How can I funnel this person into doing what I want them to do?” I have to convince them to do something, but I have to make them think it’s a good idea. You have to get inside that person’s head and be like, “OK, I want this person to step to the left. So, what can I do to convince this person the best thing they can do is to step to the left for me?” It’s more of a mental chess game than it is about a physical fight. WWD: Is that outlook helpful in life and business? R.R.: Definitely. All sports are a metaphor for life, especially MMA more than anything else. It’s not like baseball, football or soccer, where the objective is to make so many points. In martial arts, the objective is always the philosophy and the discipline. Where I come from is judo, where the principals are maximum efficiency, minimum effort and mutual welfare and benefit. In judo, you’re supposed to try every single movement where it’s the most efficient. If you do a throw perfectly, it should take no effort from you. That’s what I’ve really learned in my life — being efficient in everything I do. And you always need that other person, and you’re only as good as the person you train with. So, every single time you throw someone eight times, you need to take eight falls yourself for the other person. That’s another principal that I have always applied to my life. I can’t expect things to be all about me all the time. I give as much as I expect to get. WWD: Any weight-control advice for models? R.R.: Every single time I do a shoot, I try to do it at a weight I can maintain. With the ESPN Body issue, I got a little bit lighter because ESPN tries to capture the human body at its highest potential. With anything else — like Maxim or the car magazine shoot I did in Brazil that is about femininity and not athleticism‚ I purposefully try to go in a little bit heavier, at a weight I can chill at and not have to cut down to. I want to be looking how I would on any given Wednesday. It’s important to have proper role models and to have proper sexual role models. Growing up, I would see all these chicks in magazines who looked nothing like me at all, and I thought there was something wrong with me. In middle school and high school, the boys I had crushes on were pawing at girls in magazines or just talking about girls who looked nothing like me. I love all the Dove commercials that are about the empowerment of women.