All language subtitles for Ronda.Rousey.More.than.a.Fighter.2024.1080p.WEBRip.x264-CBFM

No-one can touch me,

no-one can beat me,

no-one could even
get close to me.

Everyone's always going to
define me by my failures

but I know that I created the
most efficient fighting style

that ever existed
and I'm proud of that.

Ronda Rousey is an icon of
the mixed martial arts world

and a trailblazer for women
in combat sport,

an Olympic medallist in judo...

COMMENTATOR: Ronda Rousey,

the USA's first
women's Olympic medallist.

..the first woman to win

an Ultimate Fighting
Championship title,

a professional wrestler...

..now a TV personality
and Hollywood actress

and a regenerative farm owner.

But despite Ronda's seismic
success and achievements,

she's had to embrace
deep challenges

throughout her career -

something she hasn't shared
openly until now.

I always thought that
I could will my body

to do whatever
I needed it to do

and it was at that point
it just kind of quit on me.

Sometimes, when you're the only
woman in the room,

it's easy to feel out of place,

but you have a right
to be there.

To understand her
incredible journey,

you've got to go back in time.

What's the first memory

where you felt fighting
would be a part of your life?

Oh, God.

Erm, it was actually
the first day that I did judo.

My mom went to go visit
all of her old team-mates

that she used to train with
in the '80s in Los Angeles

and, erm, I was a swimmer then

and it was at Mojica Judo
in Baldwin Park.

I jumped on the mat and, erm,
Blinky was my first coach,

I remember I got off the mat
and he was like,

"It's a lot more fun than
swimming, isn't it?"

And I was like, "Yeah!

"I want to win the Olympics
in this now."

And I was just, you know,
I always assumed that when

I was a swimmer, I was going to
win the Olympics in swimming,

and then when I found judo
and I loved it, I was, like,

OK, I'm going to win
the Olympics in this now.

That was just the kind
of expectation

that was put in our minds
in our families.

Whatever you're going to do,
you're going to be the best at

it because you're exceptional,
and I just assumed that.

My mom was the first American
world champion in judo,

and the first American
world champion was a woman,

and it was her, and having her
just walk through

the living room made it feel
so much more attainable for me

to want to do just as much,
even more.

COMMENTATOR: And she's done.

Ronda Rousey,
the daughter of the USA's

first women's world champion,

is now the USA's first
women's Olympic medallist.

One thing that's required in
order to be a special champion

is you have to be willing
to get your heart broken.

Ever since I was a little kid,
I had a huge problem with it,

and I lost my first
Junior Nationals

and I locked myself in my
bedroom and cried for a week.

I was 13 years old...

SHE LAUGHS

..and other parents would,
like, you know, erm,

would whisper about, like,

"It's not healthy for her
to be...", you know,

"..so upset and cry so much
when she loses."

And a lot of people thought
it was my mom

putting too much pressure
on me.

But, erm, it was because
it was so important to me.

My mom, she wouldn't tell
me, like, not to be upset

because she wanted me to care
and not to try and, like,

protect myself from it
by not caring as much

because that was one of
the weapons that I had.

One of the advantages that
I had over the other girls

that I was fighting is that
I wanted it more than them.

And to put everything
that you have into something

in order to see whether or not
your best is good enough,

most people will hold back
from ever doing their best

because they always want
to have it in the back

of their mind if they fail,

"Oh, I wasn't really trying
as hard as I could."

And, erm, I think that's
one thing that made me great

is because I was willing
to get my heart broken

over and over and over again,
and not allow myself

to stop caring
as much as I did.

And so, naturally,
through fighting,

Ronda felt she could have
a positive influence.

After winning Olympic bronze
in 2008,

she had her sights firmly on
a career in mixed martial arts

and the hugely popular Ultimate
Fighting Championship...

..a fighters' league
that didn't have any women.

Driven by the words
of UFC President Dana White

never to sign a woman,
Ronda had other ideas.

I was trying to convince my mom
to, like, not disown me

for doing MMA because
she didn't think it was

a viable career option, and
it did not help my argument.

That was my first thought.

I'm, like, oh, this has not
helped my argument with my mom.

I saw what Dana White said,
I'm, like,

my mom is not going to be
in favour of this now.

When I first saw it,
my first thought was, like,

oh, well, he hasn't met me yet
so it's fine.

You just don't know.

So, yeah, I just felt
like a matter of time

before our paths would cross
and I'd change his mind.

And it worked.

Ronda became the first woman
to sign a UFC contract.

They say the supreme art of war
is to subdue the enemy

without fighting.

Well, that's exactly
what Ronda did.

With an impressive run
of ten emphatic victories,

Ronda's rise and sheer
dominance within the UFC

seemed unstoppable,

but, hidden from
the public eye,

Ronda was battling something
infinitely more challenging.

Every time you get a
concussion, it's easier to get

another one, and for, you know,
ten years of my judo career,

I was experiencing concussion
symptoms more often than not

because I wasn't allowed
to rest.

I would get a concussion
and then have to keep training

and taking, you know,
many impacts every night

and just re-aggravating it
over and over and over again,

so, erm, it got to a point
where when I came into MMA,

I wasn't able to take hits
like someone that hadn't been

walking around with concussion
for ten years,

and so I had to develop
a style of fighting, erm,

that I believe
is the most efficient

that's ever been made

and with the expressed
objective of avoiding damage.

I think that all
of my limitations

really forced me to
be better, you know?

Tearing out my knee when I was
young made me great at armbars

and, erm, you know, having the
concussion history that I had

forced me to be really quick
and efficient

and, you know, try to
finish off people very quickly

in every single match.

So it wasn't...it wasn't
an accident or luck,

it was something I was
very much doing on purpose

until, you know, it got to
a point where I literally

couldn't get touched
without being out on my feet,

and, erm, I think that I...

..I shouldn't be fighting
at the top level.

If I can take you back
to the day of that fight,

what was your feelings walking
into the ring for that fight?

And then, with what happened,

your feelings walking out
of the ring?

Erm, it just felt like
everything was going wrong.

I was literally going
into that match concussed.

I fell down the stairs,
knocked myself out.

I tore my ACL two weeks
before that fight.

I had the worst weight cut
that I ever had.

I was just so stressed
and overworked.

Like, my body was just
holding on to weight.

My kidneys were aching.

I had the wrong mouth guard

that didn't have the back
to the bottom teeth.

It just felt like everything
was so stacked against me.

I was trying so hard
just to block everything out

and just be, like,
just get through this.

Just get in there, do what you
do, you're going to be fine.

The first time I got touched
in the match,

it knocked all my bottom teeth
loose

and I was completely out on
my feet, and I could only see

in two dimensions
with big splotches in my eyes.

I kept telling myself, you're
fine, you're fine, you're fine.

Just keep coming forward,
you'll get to do another round,

you'll be able to recover,
and...

..it was just, erm...

It's hard looking back
at footage in that match

because I can see in my eyes
that I am literally suffering

from a neurological injury
decades in the making

and there's one point
where I saw that, like,

I took, like, a wild swing and
I couldn't see where she was

and I completely missed
and kept going into the cage

and fell into the cage
and all this stuff.

People see that
and they're, like,

"This is Ronda
being outclassed",

and I'm, like, "That's me with
my brain not properly working.

"If you know how I am as
a fighter, I would never

"lose my balance
and keep falling like that."

You can see the look
on my face,

that I'm just trying
to look like I'm OK.

I had been hiding concussions
and neurological injuries

for so long,
it just became part of it,

and that was the point
where I was forced

to really self assess
and be, like...

..your brain has just taken too
much damage for too many years

and even though I've never been
faster, never been stronger,

never had a better grasp
of the game,

I just neurologically
cannot take these impacts

and perform at the highest
level, which is...

..so difficult
to be able to do

because I'd really
never been better.

And, erm, I always thought
that I could will my body

to do whatever I needed it
to do,

and it was at that point that,
erm...

..it just kind of quit on me.

With one more loss and personal
concerns over her health,

Ronda decided to walk away
from the sport

for perspective and healing.

Now, removed from it, I can
kind of be proud of myself

and be, like, no-one can
touch me, no-one can beat me,

no-one could even get close to
me until it got to the point

where even being touched
put me out. Mm-hm.

And, erm, now I can be proud
of that,

even though, you know,
I don't think

I'll be remembered as that.

It really feels like everyone's
always going to define me

by my failures, but I know that
I created the most efficient

fighting style that ever
existed and I'm proud of that.

Ronda, how hard was it
to pick yourself up,

you know, mentally, physically,
spiritually, even?

Erm, I mean, it...

SHE LAUGHS

It wasn't easy.
It took a lot of time.

Love and kisses from
my husband... Of course.

..and patience from my family
and everything like that.

But I really appreciated
that no-one tried to

rush me through it,
but Trav also didn't enable,

erm, my worst tendencies.

You know, like, I just
wanted to be a hermit

and never show my face,

and he would force me to go
outside and see the sun.

I'm just going to
throw him forward.

This takes no effort from me.

He was great at not
letting me, like,

just fall into my little hole.

There were just things
where I couldn't even

watch fights without being...
without crying,

and he just slowly started
exposing me to MMA again

and putting the heavyweights on
for him to watch.

Aw!

Sorry, babe! Yeah, she's
going to take care of me!

And he even made our GPS voice
an Australian accent...

SHE LAUGHS

..cos he didn't want me to have
any hang-ups about Australia.

So, to this day, we still
have an Australian GPS.

But just little things
like that

that he did to kind of make me,
you know,

laugh at my demons
until they went away.

And to keep those demons away,
Ronda needed

a completely different
challenge.

She found it in
professional wrestling.

I am just a big nerd
for choreography

and combat storytelling
and that kind of stuff.

That's one thing that really
drew me towards pro wrestling,

because I feel like it's almost
the purest form of that

because it's not like a movie
where you set up a fight

and you film a punch from one
angle and then you reset it.

You have to, like, perform
the whole fight at once

and have everything that you do
sell from 360 degrees.

CHEERING

I feel like I've learned
so much from judo and UFC

and pro wrestling that...

I mean, I would love to be
the next Bruce Lee.

I don't know if it's ever
going to come along,

but also nobody wrote Enter the
Dragon and handed it to him.

You know, he had to go out
there and make it happen.

I love you, handsome.

FIREWORKS EXPLODE

Being a fighter was always
Ronda's sole identity,

but something on the horizon
for both her

and her husband Travis would
change their whole perspective.

You know, whenever I was in
fight camp, I was forced to

become a small fraction
of my personality.

Just, you know,
Ronda the UFC champion,

Ronda the fighter.

I only saw myself as that.

The whole world only saw me
as that.

And, erm...

..I would kind of, like,
miss the rest of myself

and almost, like, forget it.

And I used to think
I was a really chill,

laid back kind of a person,

but then again I was comparing
myself to my mom, and then

I found out that, actually,
I'm pretty, you know, intense.

But outside of fighting,

I guess I'm a very, very
different person,

and, erm...

..that wasn't all of me,
even though that was

all that I thought
anyone wanted to see.

Look at these feet.

You won't understand it
till you're older,

but when you're older, you'll
be like, "That was cool, Mama."

I mean, you can't describe it,
I think,

and you'll never know, sorry.

SHE LAUGHS

But to, like, grow something
inside of your body

and, like, you know,
feel it and talk to it,

and, erm...

..it's not just you have
a big belly and it's out,

like, you feel that there is
something alive inside of you.

Who is that little baby?

Is that you?

Yeah?

It was just, like, incredible
to finally be able to meet her.

Oh, my gosh. I love you.

It's indescribable.

You know, your peak
athletic years

are your peak reproductive
years and I saw my mom

having three kids
and working three jobs

and at one point she was
making only enough money

from her career to be able
to pay for childcare

while she was working,
and that's what she had to do

in order to advance her career,
was basically work for nothing.

I was really inspired by the
fact she was able to do that,

but I also didn't want to
have to juggle being a mom

and trying to build my career
at the same time,

so I'm glad that I waited
because now I can give 100%

of my time and energy
to my kids

and not worry about how I'm
going to keep the lights on.

But, erm, yeah, it definitely
came with its own challenges.

Look at you...

Look at you.

Look how beautiful you are.

My perception of the world
since having a daughter?

Erm, yeah, I just like...

I feel like that's one reason
why regenerative ranching

and everything we're doing
is so important,

because I'm trying...we're
trying to leave solutions

for our kids and not
just a pile of money

that's lit on fire, you know?

And, erm... So it just makes
everything that we're doing

with Browsey Acres
so much more important.

Longevity in the ring is
uncertain, but building

an environment that is safe,
nurturing and sustainable

is what Ronda and Travis
hope for their daughter.

Hi, Bob.

They created Browsey Acres,

a regenerative farm that
aims to provide just that.

He knows.

He knows it's going to
help him.

We took this land that
was really, you know,

degraded and neglected
and mismanaged -

it was more dirt
than it was grass -

and just started working
with our animals, you know,

raising them regeneratively
and mimicking these natural

processes and bringing
a whole ecosystem to life

and really being, like,
stewards of the land

and, you know, seeing it come
to its fullest potential.

And that was the most
self-validating thing

that we've ever done.

We were doing it together
and it was just so much

more fulfilling than constantly
looking for hits of that,

you know, outside validation.

We're trying to address these
crises that she's inevitably

going to have to face
in her lifetime.

And, like, climate change
is something that really,

like, weighs on my worries
for my children in the future,

and so, erm, it just makes it
seem so much more important

for us to try and do
something about it.

This is what I feel deserves
all of our time and energy

cos every single bit
that we put into it

is like us putting
into our children.

I'm going to plant some basil
that I got from the store

with a root ball attached.

This is really healthy dirt so
I'm just going to throw it in

without any potting soil
or anything.

My goal is for these
to all flower and seed

and for all edible plants
to be covering this hill

so we're not just constantly
weeding it...

I was really excited when I
finally got a plant to grow,

and then it was immediately
eaten by a squirrel.

SHE LAUGHS

So then the next time
I got a little tiny sprout,

I put, like, I call it
Fort Knox, around it,

and, yeah, it was just the
first time I'd been focusing

on where I had succeeded
instead of where I'd failed,

which is something that you
have to do when you're trying

to learn from wins and...

But, yeah, it...it just kind
of took me outside of that...

..that mindset,
because not everything

is the Olympic finals, but
I'd been treating my whole life

as if it was in preparation
for that since I was six,

and it's hard to
break out of it.

You can go anywhere you want,
but...

..keep our property, bud.

Ronda may have made a name
for herself in the ring,

but her journey continues
to evolve beyond.

Widely regarded as the first
to force a women's division

in the UFC, Ronda's message
and ability to empower women

through combat sport
is undisputed.

Oh, I'm just happy to see it
in motion because I would feel

so personally offended
that women in combat sports

weren't given the respect
that they deserve.

I think I was able to
showcase a couple of things

that I felt like women's
combat sports was missing,

which was showmanship.

A lot of times when women
come into a space

where they're not
entirely welcome,

they try to make
as few waves as possible,

and I felt like I needed to
make as many as possible

in order to fight
for our place there

instead of politely asking
for permission for it.

Being the person in front
to, like, break the wind

for everybody behind me,
it kind of, erm...

..proved the concept
and gave other women confidence

to do the same
in their own way.

Ronda, why was it important
for you to create a space

for women in this sport?

I think it's important because
sports are a metaphor for life

and, erm, I feel like
combat sports especially,

they're so character revealing.

It doesn't matter
what your misconceptions

about men or women or big
or small or anything is,

when you see a fighter being
excellent and digging deep

and being put through
adversity...

I feel like every fight
is a life in miniature

that you just kind of get to
see, like, a speed run of it.

And it's a great equaliser
and revealer of character.

I think that everybody
should be able to have

that opportunity to show that.

If you're, you know,
a woman that doesn't get

the same respect as a man, if
you go out there and you fight

and you give it your all,

anybody with half a brain
has to respect that.

I think that every generation
is making it easier

for the generation afterward,

and so I would love for
the next generation of girls,

my daughter, even, to see
what's been done before them

and know it's entirely possible

for them to do that
and exceed it.

You have a right to be there.

Sometimes, when you're
the only woman in the room,

it's easy to not
feel like that -

to feel out of place,
but you are in your place.

Being the first
is a lonely path

and many will never truly
fathom the meteoric trajectory

and variety
of Ronda Rousey's career.

Perseverance, personality,
discipline and excellence

almost certainly the key
to her success.

Surely these attributes
are the ingredients

for a bona fide trailblazer
of modern day sport.

But even in those dark moments,
Ronda's fighting spirit

allowed her to find peace
in order to navigate challenges

and transcend barriers.

She more than proved
her worth in the ring

but it's her exploits
and legacy beyond that show

she will always be so much
more than a fighter.