The Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue really sets the social standard for what people expect the perfect woman's body to look like, and a lot of those bodies usually look the same.
Ronda RouseyFor 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.
Ronda RouseyThe reaction has been amazing because there is no woman that could look at these covers and not be like, 'That's what I could look like,' or, 'I pretty much already look like one of these chicks.' It really makes beauty seem so much more attainable to people.
Ronda RouseyI'm going to retire undefeated. I'll take everybody out one-by-one then go on my merry way
Ronda RouseyEven though I was painted, even though I had on seven layers of paint - to the point that I got a tan, it was as thick as a fabric - I think I felt the most naked because I couldn't cover myself at all. I didn't have to, so I had to be much more open and relaxed.
Ronda RouseyTo be a fighter, you have to be passionate. I have so much passion, it's hard to hold it all in. That passion escapes as tears from my eyes, sweat from my pores, blood from my veins.
Ronda RouseySome people like to call me cocky or arrogant, but I just think 'how dare you assume I should think less of myself'
Ronda RouseyYou have to fight because you can't count on anyone else fighting for you. And you have to fight for people who can't fight for themselves. To get anything of real value, you have to fight for it.
Ronda RouseyMy 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.
Ronda RouseyLife is a fight from the minute you take your first breath to the moment you exhale your last.
Ronda RouseyI think that going on any reality show is not good for your mental health because you behave differently when you are being watched, and you constantly have an extra bit of awareness of what's going on all the time.
Ronda RouseyI had a certificate that said, 'Doctor of Mixology, Harvard University,' that I actually got from Harvard University. A friend of mine was a research assistant over there and it was one of those student or university perks and she brought me in on that. So I am a doctorate from Harvard and it only took me one afternoon.
Ronda RouseyPeople 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.'
Ronda RouseyDo I ever get tired of being the first female everything? Not really, I just happened to be in a position where the job that I wanted was not really there for me. I had to create an opportunity instead of waiting for an opportunity.
Ronda RouseyThat's why I love fighting, because I get to have a big battle every couple months to make up for the little battles I have to forfeit every day
Ronda RouseyThat I happened to fall into a career that no other girls wanted isn't surprising to me. I wanted something that didn't exist, so I had to create it.
Ronda RouseyI did what sports were supposed to be like, and I was living in my car. So you know what, fine. I'm gonna talk a bunch of sh*t. I'm gonna pose in a couple of pictures. And I'm gonna break a couple of girl's arms, and I'm not gonna feel the least bit sorry about it because you know what? At least I can feed my dog.
Ronda RouseyI'm kind of like a middle mix between a warrior diet and a Paleo diet, so I only eat once a day and it's at night - so kind of like interval fasting. But I eat until I'm full, I eat as much as I want, and I really don't eat anything that you couldn't find, you know, 10,000 years ago.
Ronda RouseyWhenever people call me the first female this or that, it doesn't make it more special because no one in front of me wanted the same job. I've always wanted weird stuff and enjoyed things differently than other girls.
Ronda RouseyWhen 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.
Ronda RouseyThe 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.
Ronda RouseyI really think that 'Sports Illustrated' is a big step in the "healthy is the new skinny" movement.
Ronda RouseyI kind of like to think of myself as the bad girl Olympian that would get kicked out of the Miss America pageant.
Ronda RouseyI'm the most dangerous unarmed women in the world, I've prepared my entire life to be that way.
Ronda RouseyMost people focus on the wrong thing; They focus on the result, not the process. The process is the sacrifice; it's all the hard parts - the sweat, the pain, the tears, the losses. You make the sacrifices anyway. You learn to enjoy them, or at least embrace them. In the end, it is the sacrifices that must fulfill you.
Ronda RouseyI 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.
Ronda RouseyIn MMA it’s a lot less intimidating because it’s not like you get one shot at a title every four years. You get a title shot every couple of months ... With the Olympics, you don’t always have this, so there is so much more pressure involved.
Ronda RouseyIf I could have had everything exactly the way I wanted, this is how I would have written it down. Win all my fights in the first round, then go to the UFC and headline a show, and have it as a pay-per-view and at home. People's dreams don't come true like that.
Ronda RouseyI try not to get caught up on how cool I am. That way nothing ever gets done. I'm always thinking about what I haven't done.
Ronda RouseyAt 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.
Ronda RouseyI got a lot of body paint on me in a short period of time. I would definitely do it again because Joann Gair is so brilliant, but I would definitely need, like, a good long break for it.
Ronda RouseyWhere is women's sports prominently displayed with the men? Tennis is the only thing I can think of.
Ronda RouseySports Illustrated is very serious about their covers. They'll never say, like, 'Oh you got it.'
Ronda RouseyThere have been times in my adolescence where I gave up. I was like, 'I'm just never going to be pretty. I'm never going to be like one of those people on the front of magazines.' It always seemed really strange to me that the projection of how people are in advertisements looked nothing like the people who were actually buying them. You know what I mean? I never understood that mismatch, and now I really start to see that the people you see in the media are a lot more like people actually are.
Ronda RouseyThe bigger my chest is, the more it gets in the way. It just creates space. It makes me much more efficient if I don't have so much in the way between me and my opponent.
Ronda RouseyThe kind of hope I'm talking about is the belief that something good will come. That everything you're going through and everything you've gone through will be worth the struggles and frustrations. The kind of hope I'm talking about is a deep belief that the world can be changed, that the impossible is possible.
Ronda Rousey