Olympian No Stranger to Center Stage

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Before challenging someone of Santos’ stature, Rousey concedes she would like to have five or six professional fights under her belt. That experience would help her feel more at home in the cage.

“I still feel like I get a little bit nervous when I’m in there,” she says. “When I feel like there’s a good level of comfort, I’m going to go for it. I mean, I’m 24. I’m in no rush and I want to do it the right way. I’m definitely going to make it happen.

“No one is unbeatable,” Rousey adds, pointing out that Cyborg is not the biggest or toughest woman she has ever come across. “In MMA, they try to sell these athletes to make them look as good as possible, and a lot of her hype is exactly that; it’s hype. She’s a big strong girl with not that much technique, and if she runs into somebody who’s just as strong as she is, with better technique, I think she’s going to have a lot of trouble.”

Rousing Start

When Rousey competed at 70 kilograms in the Olympics, she was the smallest female in the division, competing against 6-foot-1 and 6-foot-2 judokas. She also points out that performance-enhancing drugs may have been in play.

“With the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, the American anti-doping [body], they’re out to get you. [In] a lot of the other countries, they’re out to help their athletes pass international testing,” Rousey says. “I mean, constantly, my whole career, I’ve been used to working with a strength disadvantage, and I’m really not intimidated the way a lot of these girls are and think they have to jump in the ring with Cyborg, and they’ve beaten themselves before they even get in there. I’m not as easily intimidated. I mean, I might not look like it -- I put it away well -- but I’m stronger than I look. By the time I’m coming around and ready for that title shot, everyone will be pleasantly surprised, but I won’t be.”

Rousey won all three of her amateur bouts via armbar, all in less than a minute. Her professional MMA matches have followed the same pattern; she submitted Ediane Gomes with an armbar in 25 seconds under the King of the Cage banner in March and defeated kickboxing champion Chairmaine Tweet with the same hold in 49 seconds at a Hard Knocks Fighting Championship event in June.

“I just try to be as efficient as possible and go for the first openings I see,” Rousey says, “and, fortunately, the first openings I see are usually the right ones so far.”

A two-time Olympian and Jimmy Pedro protégé, Rousey now trains under Gokor Chivitchian and “Judo” Gene Labell, among others. She faces the once-beaten Sarah D’Alelio at Strikeforce Challengers 18 and admits she does not really know what to expect.

“I don’t know if she’s going to try to keep me standing. I don’t know if she’s going to try to take me to the ground,” Rousey says. “I know that most of her wins have been on the ground, but I’m going to be prepared for either scenario.”

Striking remains eminently more challenging for Rousey since she only has one year of experience with it: “I’m just kind of playing catch-up to have a more well-rounded game.” She has not shown much with her hands and feet, mainly because she has ended her bouts so quickly. However, Rousey’s striking coach, Edmond Taverdyan, describes her style as aggressive.

“I’m teaching her how to close the gap and how to get inside and the striking skills to work inside to do a throw,” he says. “You’re not just going to go over and run after them to grab [them], like in judo. You have to work your way inside with boxing skills, boxing footwork, and I’ve been teaching her that.”

Although Rousey concedes she has no idea what her latest foe has in store for her, D’Alelio will likely have her hands full, too. Leo Frincu, Rousey’s wrestling and conditioning coach, points to the judoka’s killer instinct and speed as her primary strengths.

“People will not be able to match that. You cannot train for her. There is no such thing as training for Ronda Rousey,” Frincu says. “People will try to train for that, to match that or to prepare for that, but until you experience that, you will not know what to do with it. It’s like putting a kid in a Ferrari after driving a Honda; he will not know what to do with that car; he will get hurt. So it’s the same thing in MMA and competing with Ronda.”

Taking Time to Recharge

Training partner Manny Gamburyan, a former WEC featherweight title contender, was quick to point out that Rousey cries a lot outside of the gym.

“I’ll cry over spilled milk, literally. I will literally cry over spilled milk,” she says. “I’ll cry over a movie. I’ll cry if I read an article about a dog dying. I’ll cry if I’m really excited about eating an ice cream cone and I drop it. Outside of the gym, when I can be wussy, I’ll let it all out.”

Rousey, who describes herself as “emotionally needy,” admits to being fragile away of the gym -- a byproduct, she says, of soreness and fatigue.

“I’m pretty fragile if I don’t have my Superwoman costume on,” she says. “If I’m not fighting, I’m just like, ‘Oh, don’t touch me.’ I’m a big baby when I’m not training. I get home and if anyone touches me, I’m, like, ‘Ow! No! Don’t touch me! It’s like Clark Kent and Superman, you know? I go on and off.”

While away from training, Rousey spends much of her time sleeping, relaxing at home or dabbling in the social networking scene.

“The second I get home, I really don’t want to move, so that’s why you see me on Facebook and Twitter so much,” she says. “I really don’t want to leave the house. I do a lot of lounging around because the second I’m done training, I’m just spent; I have nothing left.”

Rousey lives in a “hippie house” surrounded by a garden, with her dog and two roommates: one of whom gardens and another who enjoys hula and playing Hawaiian instruments.

“They’re normal people,” she says. “It’s very comforting to get to go home and not have to talk about fighting.”

Once a frequent Pokémon player, Rousey surrendered that pastime after her Gameboy DS charger wound up in the hands of her ex-boyfriend.

“You get stuck in this routine, and, before you fight, you just have to kind of isolate yourself. Then, the week after you fight, you go crazy and then you party and then you go back to your isolation training, kind of like ‘Rocky IV,’” she says. “I always tell everybody I’m a robot; when I’m not working, I’m charging.”