Ronda Rousey: “Ultimate Fighter” Made Her Hate Gym

Ronda Rousey has had a busy year; besides coaching on the 18th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” opposite her nemesis, Meisha Tate, she also landed a part in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle ...
Ronda Rousey: “Ultimate Fighter” Made Her Hate Gym
Written by Amanda Crum
  • Ronda Rousey has had a busy year; besides coaching on the 18th season of “The Ultimate Fighter” opposite her nemesis, Meisha Tate, she also landed a part in the Sylvester Stallone vehicle “The Expendables 3” as well as one in “Fast And Furious 7”. Her high profile in the world of MMA is opening up doors, but the show has taken a lot out of her, physically, emotionally, and mentally, and she says she actually started to question her love of the sport during filming.

    “The gym is the place where I really center myself and I’m able to put the world into perspective and calm down,” she said. “When the cameras are on you nonstop, that changes. Even electrons change when they are watched constantly, and they really took my safe place and bastardized it to where I was dragging myself to the gym every day. They literally took my only safe place and made it something that I hated. I’m so thankful for being able to forge the relationships I did with my team, but you couldn’t pay me $10 million to do that again. There is just no way. By the end, I was questioning my love for the sport. I’m just happy to get back home to my environment and have my gym be my reprieve again instead of it being a stage.”

    Rousey says she didn’t let the cameras affect her behavior, and while she says that’s not a bad thing, some viewers might not see it that way. Real-life animosity between Rousey and Tate reportedly made filming more difficult as drama erupted on set.

    “I haven’t seen any of the footage yet, but I’m aware that I’m going to look nuts,” she said. “These kids that I’m responsible for have everything that is important in their lives on the line, and if that isn’t something important enough to care about and cry about, then I don’t know what is. I have no filter with my emotions, and people are going to see exactly what I’m feeling. I don’t think that is a bad thing.”

    Rousey said it was difficult for her to keep her emotions out of it when her fighters were going through something.

    “I just felt like any kind of heartbreak or triumph, whatever they’re going through, I share in it,” she told MMA Weekly.

    “The Ultimate Fighter” premieres on Fox Sports on Wednesday night.

    Image: Wikimedia Commons

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