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http://www.espn.com/espn/feature/st...onda-rousey-preparing-return-ufc-amanda-nunes
On this crisp November morning, Rousey wears a hoodie and Ugg boots for the short walk from the cabin to the detached garage her longtime trainer Edmond Tarverdyan has turned into a dojo. Six days a week, twice a day, Rousey makes this trip to train for her comeback fight against Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30.
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"That loss saved me from becoming what I hate," she says. "One of those people who live their lives to impress everyone else. Who put up a front for the world to admire. Who make sure every charitable act is posted and shared for their own image gain. Who posture and pose for people they care nothing about except for the opinion they have of them."
/
"I was just trying to make too many people happy," Rousey says. "But when I try and do favors and make everybody else happy, at the end of the day, they walk away happy and I'm the one who has to deal with the depression. All the pay-per-views in the world, all the money in the world, it means f---ing nothing to me because I lost."
/
Rousey still cries sometimes as she relives details from the fight. It's painful and embarrassing.
/
Tarverdyan comes over to start wrapping her hands. He's done this hundreds of times over the past few years. Each piece of tape and gauze has a message written on it, and after the workout, she'll crumple it into a ball. If they were back at her home gym in LA, she'd toss the ball over the wall of the Octagon cage. A little game to break up the monotony of training camp.
There are hundreds of balls of tape and hand wraps from over the years. Many say, "Retire Undefeated." During this training camp, she's writing a new slogan on her used wraps: "FTA." F--- Them All.
But her mom, a former judoka herself, keeps reminding her that her motivation has got to be more than "FTA."
"F -- everybody is not a good reason to fight," her mother, AnnMaria De Mars, told her. "I think that's stupid and bulls -- ."
/
Rousey stays and does Pilates for a while before the sweat dries and she gets a chill. This is one of her rituals. After the loss to Holm, Pilates was the first exercise she had the heart for.
"Just me out in the garage, alone and crying, doing Pilates," she jokes. "Good times."
/
The truth is, she was embarrassed by the loss, ashamed of it. She knew what people were saying -- Miesha Tate calling her "a broken woman" and wondering "if she'll ever come back the same." Holly Holm's father, Roger Holm, said she was "scared to death." Cris "Cyborg" Justino started mercilessly calling her out on Twitter.
Rousey refuses to give oxygen to any of their taunts. But even after the voices died down and the world moved on, they became a manifestation of her own shame. The hate she hears and feels is really just her wounded pride echoing in her head.
/
Last month, he flew in Olympic boxer Mikaela Mayer for a week of sparring. Just boxing -- no judo or grappling or jiujitsu.
///
Takeaways
training in a small garage in an isolated area
still totally delusional
lashing out at the world because people didn't fawn on her
still mentally broken
the Olymypic boxer only worked with her for 1 week
Verdict: it's not looking good
On this crisp November morning, Rousey wears a hoodie and Ugg boots for the short walk from the cabin to the detached garage her longtime trainer Edmond Tarverdyan has turned into a dojo. Six days a week, twice a day, Rousey makes this trip to train for her comeback fight against Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30.
/
"That loss saved me from becoming what I hate," she says. "One of those people who live their lives to impress everyone else. Who put up a front for the world to admire. Who make sure every charitable act is posted and shared for their own image gain. Who posture and pose for people they care nothing about except for the opinion they have of them."
/
"I was just trying to make too many people happy," Rousey says. "But when I try and do favors and make everybody else happy, at the end of the day, they walk away happy and I'm the one who has to deal with the depression. All the pay-per-views in the world, all the money in the world, it means f---ing nothing to me because I lost."
/
Rousey still cries sometimes as she relives details from the fight. It's painful and embarrassing.
/
Tarverdyan comes over to start wrapping her hands. He's done this hundreds of times over the past few years. Each piece of tape and gauze has a message written on it, and after the workout, she'll crumple it into a ball. If they were back at her home gym in LA, she'd toss the ball over the wall of the Octagon cage. A little game to break up the monotony of training camp.
There are hundreds of balls of tape and hand wraps from over the years. Many say, "Retire Undefeated." During this training camp, she's writing a new slogan on her used wraps: "FTA." F--- Them All.
But her mom, a former judoka herself, keeps reminding her that her motivation has got to be more than "FTA."
"F -- everybody is not a good reason to fight," her mother, AnnMaria De Mars, told her. "I think that's stupid and bulls -- ."
/
Rousey stays and does Pilates for a while before the sweat dries and she gets a chill. This is one of her rituals. After the loss to Holm, Pilates was the first exercise she had the heart for.
"Just me out in the garage, alone and crying, doing Pilates," she jokes. "Good times."
/
The truth is, she was embarrassed by the loss, ashamed of it. She knew what people were saying -- Miesha Tate calling her "a broken woman" and wondering "if she'll ever come back the same." Holly Holm's father, Roger Holm, said she was "scared to death." Cris "Cyborg" Justino started mercilessly calling her out on Twitter.
Rousey refuses to give oxygen to any of their taunts. But even after the voices died down and the world moved on, they became a manifestation of her own shame. The hate she hears and feels is really just her wounded pride echoing in her head.
/
Last month, he flew in Olympic boxer Mikaela Mayer for a week of sparring. Just boxing -- no judo or grappling or jiujitsu.
///
Takeaways
training in a small garage in an isolated area
still totally delusional
lashing out at the world because people didn't fawn on her
still mentally broken
the Olymypic boxer only worked with her for 1 week
Verdict: it's not looking good
