Wrestling Point

  LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Ronda Rousey spent a year as a bartender after she turned 21, partying every night and wondering what to do with her Olympic bronze medal in judo. When she first saw mixed martial arts on television, her friends warned her away. This complicated new cage-fighting sport was too violent, too primitive, too unregulated. "That just made me really want to try it," Rousey said with a laugh. Six years later, Rousey is nothing less than the face of the UFC, the young sport's dominant promotional company. She has never lost a fight, reigning as the bantamweight champion ever since the UFC finally began promoting women's bouts two years ago. Rousey has become an actor, a model, a celebrity endorser and one of the world's most prominent female athletes during her meteoric rise, but she realizes she hasn't done it alone. Women's MMA is surging in prominence with Rousey at the forefront, and the sport gets its biggest showcase yet this weekend w...

RONDA ROUSEY FIGHTS IN THE CLUB IN ‘THE EXPENDABLES III’ Making her film debut in ‘The Expendables 3’ she played the role of Luna, an athletic nightclub bouncer and expert in close quarter combat who was a newcomer to the crew. Possibly the biggest star to come out of the UFC, it was no surprise that Hollywood came knocking to recruit her for film projects. Making her film debut in ‘The Expendables 3’ she played the role of Luna, an athletic nightclub bouncer and expert in close quarter combat who was a newcomer to the crew featuring the likes of Sly Stallone, Wesley Snipes, Victor Ortiz and Jason Statham, adding to heated rivalry between the younger Expendables and older Expendables. We did a lot of clinching stuff together. We found some random boxing club in the middle of Bulgaria - we would move around the ring and I’d have to try and clinch him, and he’d have to try and get away from me, which is good for him. He’s got great footwork from pure boxing. He would try to run away and ...

  Why Fit and Strong is the New Pretty and Thin Ronda Rousey may not have spoken until the age of four but the undefeated UFC and martial arts sensation is not shy of letting her athletic ability do her talking. The 28-year-old has exploded into the public consciousness in the past two years through her work in the MMA cage and Hollywood, starring in blockbusters such as Fast and Furious 7, and the Expendables 3. Ronda Rousey – Why Fit and Strong is the New Pretty and Thin Rousey is probably the best-known female athlete in the world and there’s no doubt her athletic looks have played a part. Not a traditional beauty by any means but handsome, fit, and impressive, a real contrast to the stick-thin creations sometimes held up as role models. For example, teenage tennis star Eugenie Bouchard is a lads’ favourite, with looks to die for. They recently propelled her to the top of Sports Pro Magazine’s ‘2015 Most marketable’ char The acid test for an athlete is the number of champio...

  Why an immediate rematch between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm is a terrible idea Ronda Rousey left UFC 194  likely concussed, with her mouth split open and no answers at all for the new bantamweight champion Holly Holm She goes home to deal with conflict among key members of her team, and her head coach facing possible financial ruin. On top of all that, she's just completed perhaps the most hectic and taxing year any UFC fighter has ever had -- with three title defenses in nine months, multiple movies filmed and released, a book written, and promoted. Still, reporters in attendance at the Etihad arena in Melbourne after the event somehow thought it reasonable to suggest an between Rousey and the woman who had just dominated her thoroughly. Holm, ever game, eagerly accepted the idea of an immediate rematch. UFC president Dana White certainly didn't shut the idea down, either, given the money any Rousey fight makes. Still, an immediate rematch between Rousey and Holm is t...

  No matter how much mixed martial arts strives to be a sport held in the same light as the NFL or the NBA, it's hard to deny at the end of the day that this competition is a fight and there is no better way to settle a grudge than stepping inside the Octagon, lacing up the gloves and throwing down. MMA has been built on the age old premise of one fighter not liking something about another fighter, one of them wants to punch the other in the face, and so we all get to benefit when it finally boils over into interviews, TV shows and eventually a fight. In 2013 we saw some epic grudges unfold in the UFC with rivalries that may live on forever, but there was none bigger this year than the epic hate fest that was Ronda Rousey against Miesha Tate. The two women's bantamweight fighters have been attached to one another ever since Rousey called out Tate in late 2011, which eventually led to a fight in 2012.  Rousey won that fight when she snapped Tate's arm with her signature armb...

  UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey during UFC 184 Ultimate Media Day at Club Nokia at L.A. Live in Los Angeles Thursday, February 26, 2015. (Photo by Hans Gutknecht/Los Angeles Daily News) UFC 184 is close to being sold out, and a lot of that has to do with the main event pitting undefeated women’s champion Ronda Rousey against undefeated No. 1 contender Cat Zingano. But Rousey also represents one of five Southern California fighters on the card, who figure to have family and friends in attendance Saturday at Staples Center. Rousey, for one, has made it a point for weeks to keep an eye out for the UFC 184 ad on the digital billboard as she drives from her Venice home along the 110 Freeway to train at Glendale Fighting Club. “I’m like, maybe that’s the one, maybe this one, maybe this one,” said Rousey (10-0), whose fight against Zingano (9-0) will be her fourth UFC title defense in two years. “And if it comes up and it has me and Cat on the billboard of the Staples Cen...