The Chris Cuomo Project - Ronda Rousey On Fighting Through Concussions, Joe Rogan's Turn Against Her & Life After The Octagon

Episode Date: April 23, 2024

Ronda Rousey (professional mixed martial artist, wrestler, and author, "Our Fight") opens up to Chris Cuomo about her illustrious fight career and the personal battles that have shaped her. Rousey discusses her rapid ascent within the UFC, pivotal lessons from her loss to Holly Holm, and her ventures beyond, including a significant stint in WWE. She candidly reflects on the physical and psychological challenges she's encountered throughout her career, particularly her struggles with repeated concussions, as well as Joe Rogan's turn against her. Reflecting further, Rousey also delves into her transformative journey towards sustainability and motherhood, showcasing her evolution from a celebrated fighter to a passionate advocate for change. Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Join Chris Ad-Free On Substack: http://thechriscuomoproject.substack.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rhonda Rousey is a legend in the UFC, but she may be more of an instruction in life than just in fighting. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to The Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for subscribing and following here and watching me on NewsNation every weekday night at 8 and 11 p. Appreciate you. So I absolutely am a fan of Rhonda Rousey, but I always had a nagging question about

why did everything change so much after her epic fight with Holly Holm where she got knocked out? And it turns out that there was an entire story about what happened before and after that had a lot more to do with what I saw was a standalone pivot moment And I was wrong and I was wrong about something else, too I thought that her big achievement was done when she left the ring sure she's in WWE and doing all that stuff But it turns out the life she's living now Matters a lot more to her than anything that ever happened in the octagon. Here's a really interesting conversation with Rhonda Rowdy-Rowsy. This is a great pleasure for me.

One of the reasons I like doing the podcast is I get to talk to people who are interesting to me from my personal life. And I am a big fight fan. I've watched at least a dozen of your fights. And I want to thank you for all the enjoyment you've given me over the years. Thank you. It is my pleasure to be interesting to you. And 12, that's almost all of them. Yep.

That's all of the professional ones. Well, professional wins, actually. I don't count the losses. Those are the ones that count, Rhonda. Those are the ones that count. Yeah, those are the ones that count to me. The ones I wanted you to watch. So most people will know you just from being a celebrity,

and they're not as into the fight game than I am, but I do have to indulge it for just two seconds. The first one is, did you and or your husband watch the card 300? No, I actually was driving back from doing a signing for the book at the Nellis Air Force Base. And I just had to spend the night away from my baby. So I just wanted to go home to my little girl. That's all I cared about. And she wanted to watch Ponyo all night. So that's what we did. So your husband didn't get to see it either. It had a rowdy-esque moment with Max Holloway and Geishi,

where Max Holloway called him to the middle of the ring with like 15 seconds left in the fight. They were fighting for the BMF title that they have, the Bad Mo-Fo title. know, that they have, the Bad Mo Faux title. And with 10 seconds left in the fight, Max Holloway knew, he had to know he was winning the fight, okay, and he definitely was winning the fight. And he does this, and he points to the middle of the ring,

and Gaethje comes and they stand, and they start swinging each other like they were in fourth grade. And he connects and knocks Gagey out cold with one second left in the fight. Wow. Well, I mean, I wouldn't call that a rousy moment. I would call that a Diaz moment,

but that's still, that's beautiful. I love the Diaz brothers, both of them, Nate, of course. But there was something you brought to the sport of complete domination that I think elevated not just women's athletics and certainly combat sport, but the sport altogether. Was that important to you as a fighter that when you would go in there, when it was over, there would be no doubts about who was better?

I mean, it had to always be a finish. I could never let it go to the cards because that's what go to the judges because my mom taught me when I was a little kid, we had to deal with a lot of very unfair officiating. And she said, if I ever let it go to the judges, I deserve to lose. If I ever allow it to be somebody else's decision,

if I'm ever let somebody else try to win a fight for me, I deserve to lose. Like you had five minutes to beat that person and if they didn't count a score, you had five minutes to beat them twice. And that's why my mom trained me to do arm bars at a very young age. She said that's the most definite way to win.

That's a win that they can't take away from you. So if you arm bar somebody and they get out and you lose to someone with one arm, then you deserve to lose anyway. And so that was just what I was taught from a very young age is you have to finish all your fights and you have to try and finish them right away when the other person isn't ready yet. Because I used to do tournaments where you'd fight several times throughout the day. And to be fresher for the finals, if you had a bunch of quick matches throughout the day,

it made the finals a lot less difficult for you. So I was always taught to attack right off the first exchange. That's why I don't touch gloves or whatever in the beginning. I'm like, bell rung, bitch. OK, like, it's over. The handsy-ish, handshaky time was like, you had weeks for that, OK? It's over.

And that's what I was taught, was in that first moment, that's when people aren't ready and to keep it one constant exchange. You know, you'll see some guys come out and they'll do a little bit and then they'll bounce around for a little bit and they'll come back and do a little bit and my style of fighting was to not allow

the other person to have those resets. So the book is very interesting for people to read. Doesn't matter if you care about Ronda Rousey, the fighter, you're not an MMA person, you're not a combatant, it doesn't matter. There is a heavy metaphor of struggle and of understanding what struggle is really about, which is change.

You call the book Our Fight. Why is it Our Fight? Well, the first one was called My Fight Your Fight, because it was very much, it was kind of organized in formative events in my life that principles of fighting helped me get through. And so it was like these principles of fighting translate into my life and they can translate into yours.

It's very much my life and your life is parallel, but not interconnected. By the time our fight came around, I was a public figure and the journey of the people reading in mine had become intertwined. And sometimes it felt like I was fighting those people. Sometimes it felt like we were fighting together for the same things, and it always feels like

we're always fighting our own battles for whatever we have going on. So, you know, I decided to get Grammarly and change it to our... I think it works. I think there's a lot of important messages. I love the back cover, which I'll show people, and I think that there's nothing as magical in the life,

especially for, you know, when you become a parent, people, you'll see parts of yourself that you never imagined before. And I know that you and your husband have three kids combined. So, you know, you're in mommy mode, full swing. What is the biggest difference that having your daughter and becoming a parent has made in what you're about?

What I'm about, wow. I think my priorities have shifted so much more to the future than to right now. And that's one reason why we got into Browse the Acres, our regenerative Wagyu and poultry ranch, because bringing a new kid into the world right now where it seems like everything's on fire, you're like, oh my God, what am I going to do for this person? If I leave them a pile of money, is that really going to do anything or is that also going to be on fire? So climate

changes, the climate crisis is one of the things that weighs most on my mind for my children's future. And so I wanted to leave them some solutions instead of just like hoping somebody else will do something about it. And I really believe that regenerative agriculture is one of the most scalable solutions out there, not just for going carbon neutral, but also negative. And we took this degraded land that was more dirt than it was grass that had been mismanaged for years.

And we converted it into a regenerative operation where we work in concert with our animals to let them exhibit natural behaviors and make the whole like ranch into a carbon sink. And we make it into a habitat for all the animals around us and really invest a lot in the health of our soil and using the soil to sequester carbon

and give us the healthiest, most delicious meat that's ever happened. And so that kind of became our new focus as we weren't thinking about, oh, myself, and I need to prove to everybody I'm a great fighter and all these things. I was like, oh my God, the world. Everything was on fire. What am I gonna do for my baby? And so I became a lot less focused on myself

and a lot more focused on the world around us because of them. Did you or your husband understand all the dynamics that you're dealing with now in the project on the farm before you got into it? I mean, he was a fighter too, right? He was a heavyweight and he's retired, obviously you're retired, but do either of you like this,

you knew this coming into it or is this a journey together to learn about something that matters? We had no generational knowledge or anything about farming. We watched a lot of YouTube. And that was basically at YouTube University. And then we started when we really decided to take the plunge. We had, what is his name? Polyface Farms.

Well, we had Joe Saladin come out to our place as a consultant to try and help us how can we organize this stuff into a regenerative system. My husband just went off to a soil seminar for a week and just trying to make our, basically our system more efficient and better for the animals and everything like that. But it's all been a learning process. And you know, we because we don't have those resources really, even our partners have only been in it for like 10, 15 years, which is not a lot in like farming terms.

So but we're not alone. They're like this huge percentage of people that want to go and like have a farm and live off the land someday. And so we figured, you know, why, why not be that example of people that wanna go and like have a farm and live off the land someday. And so we figured, you know, why not be that example of people that can take the plunge and make it happen. How big is the farm? How many animals? What is the hardest part?

What is the best part? Our ranch is 660 acres. Our partner who got us into Ag U and is our breeder, they have a couple thousand anchors next to us so we can move them back and forth. We have 300 animals at this time and the hardest part, I mean I think harvesting the animals is definitely the hardest part. Like we raise our personal animals for our family in the backyard and we spend time with

them every day and we like brush them and massage them and spend all this time with them and do all the feeding and watering and everything ourselves and we like get to know them and their personalities and everything. And a lot of people like to gatekeep caring about animals. Like you can't care about these animals because you end up eating them. You're a terrible person. How could you even do that? That's sick.

And I'm like, I have a way more vested interest in the quality of life of this animal than anyone. This animal, I'm literally taking its life to support my lifestyle. And it's going to be feeding like my children, my husband, myself. And I want it to have a life worth living. I want it to be as healthy as possible.

I want it to be happy and to experience being loved and not have to separate myself emotionally from it. And so that's the hardest part, but I don't want it to be easy. When it means nothing to me, then I think then we're doing something wrong. And I think the absolute best part is like seeing land that has been neglected and degraded and

rehabilitating it and bringing it up to its full potential and seeing it like become a habitat for for wildlife and for your animals and you know to see that dirt fill in and being like an actual land steward, I think it's the most validating experience I've ever had and experience that's validating in itself, not like that looking for that outside validation, let me get signed autographs and be taking pictures on a red carpet.

It makes all of that seem so silly and I think that's why I love it so much. So how do you maintain, you're very passionate about this, how do you maintain the drive to make it as an entertainer, as a celebrity and do this? How do you balance? And of course, you got kids, but you know, how do you balance which point of purpose gets the most of you? That's a great question, oh my goodness.

It's really hard, but in one way, I can't help doing all these things. It's not like something I have to dig deep to do. It's not like algebra, you to dig deep to do. It's not like algebra. I really enjoy pro wrestling. I really enjoy farming. I really enjoy spending time with my kids. And so for pro wrestling, we just kind of set a limit.

I was like, OK, I'm going to have this baby. And for the first, from when she's four months old to the next 18 months, I'll be on the road and wrestle full time. And then I'll just be done for that. Because we're planning on having more kids and she was getting that age where she's not just asleep on a nursing pillow for the whole flight, and I'm flying with her every week.

And so then I decided, okay, as soon as we're done with that, then 100 percent time on the family and on the farm. And I feel like when we're spending time on the farm, it really is family time. It's just that we're doing something else together, which I love that my children are so in touch with where their food comes from. And we know these animals so intimately.

It's kind of like every animal is different in not just its personality, but the cuts of meat itself. So like this, our first steer ever that we harvested, Kobe had amazing ribeyes and his nephew Porter, who was my favorite cow ever. That one like really broke my heart. His New Yorks were like incredible.

So like our kids will be like, if we're cooking something, they're like, who's that? Who are you eating? Like, oh, this is zing., they're like, who's that? Who are you eating? Like, oh, this is Zing. And they're like, oh, what is part of Zing? I'm like, oh, this is, you know, his, his filet or something like that. They're like, oh, you know, although like someone's coming over, like, oh, someone's coming over.

Okay, you need to grab Porter's New York's and we'll know them all by name and everything like that. And so nothing ever gets wasted. And we're never like ungrateful for it. And we're always like very appreciative. Like when we sit down to eat, we always thank the animal by name instead of like, anything else we're like, okay, thank you, Coby.

And then we'll eat, you know? And I don't know, it's been like a really, enjoyable, gratifying experience for our whole family. And you've set yourself a hard out of your entertaining and pro wrestling life, 22 months and then that's it? No, I'm done, I'm done pro wrestling. I'll do it like for fun locally.

I like the smaller shows that aren't televised, like the kind of indie style shows. I'll show up every once in a while when I can do the matches the way that I want. It's just very like restricting being with the WWE. They didn't really like prioritize my stuff or really work with me on putting it together or allow me to prepare or rehearse or anything like that.

I was really constricted a lot with the times of how long I was allowed to wrestle for what moves I was allowed to do. And it just kind of like sucked the joy out of it. So, and it just ended up putting, we ended up just doing really mediocre work because they just didn't allow me to put the effort in or put any effort in themselves.

So, the only way I'd want to wrestle is be able to do it with my friends, at home so I don't have to fly. We can like prepare as long as we want to and put together a match that we love and do, wrestle for as long as we want to and do whatever a match that we love and do wrestle for as long as we want to and do whatever moves we want. And that's what I love about it.

I actually hate performing in stadiums. It's like the crowd can't sync up, if that makes sense. It's a very impersonal experience. I like a smaller venue where the crowd is like right there and close to you and you can look at a fan in the eye and be like, you suck, you know? And kind of play that, have that rapport back and forth and close to you. And you can look at a fan in the eye and be like, you suck, you know, and like kind of play that, have that rapport back and forth and make it personal.

That's what I love about it. How is your body holding up for it? I mean, compared to who? Well, not compared to me. My body's destroyed, man. But yeah, I know. I mean, you know, you have been at such a high level for such a big chunk of your life.

It's interesting to hear you saying you haven't mentioned at all any kind of fatigue. You're just like, I want to take care of my kids. I want to take care of the farm. I want to do it my way. But you're still good to go. You like you feel like that's not a physical thing. It's just a priority thing. I just feel like being like injured is just part of life. Like there was never a fight that I didn't have an injury going into it. Like yesterday, I took my baby to the aquarium, and I just got this level of old where I'm like, my thumb just hurts today.

And I did nothing. And just my thumb was like, no, you've been picking up a baby too much. And then it's just my whole body from here from here on down, it's just full of all these old injuries that you think when you're young and invincible and in your 20s and teens and you dislocate your elbow, it's fine. It got better. No, your elbow fucking remembers. And so all of these old injuries are coming back and stuff like that. I'll be like, oh, my foot hurt. Like, oh yeah, I broke my foot that one time a long time ago, and they're all coming back,

and now everything hurts, but I'm used to it, and so it's not really a prohibiting thing for me. My whole life has been a workaround injury, so it's not as bad as it's been. ["The Big Game"] Support for The Chris Cuomo project comes from Cozy Earth. Let me tell you, bedding matters. And this isn't just me telling you this.

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So I'm looking at the book. I get from a storytelling perspective why you guys picked November 15, 2015, which is of course the Holly Home fight. But I have always had a problem with that until I don't know who you were talking to. But I saw an interview you did recently that really made me want to have you on the podcast. And you were very emotional. And you were talking about how it's not just about that one fight that you lost the fight to Holly Holm,

but that there is an accumulation of injury that you get and of susceptibility, especially when it comes to head and concussions that they don't tell you about and that you can't train your way out of, and it just makes you vulnerable in a way that you can't tell you about and that you can't train your way out of and it just makes you vulnerable in a way that you can't overcome. And it was very upsetting to you, which would make total sense, especially if people know you and your story. You know, you have so much dog in you.

You know what I mean? You've overcome so much. It's such a big part of your identity. And it was interesting to see, you weren't emotional because you lost the fight. You know, people are gonna lose fights. You're it was interesting to see, you weren't emotional because you lost the fight. People are gonna lose fights. You're not that used to it,

but people lose fights if they fight long enough. But it was why that there was an aspect to what happens when you fight a lot that you couldn't control, you couldn't do anything about. And I want people to understand that. Take us through it. Yeah, I think the thing that really upset me the most was that it meant it was over for me. I

had so many concussions as a kid. We didn't really have that research that we do now. For 10 years of my judo career, I was experiencing concussion symptoms more often than not. For 10 years, I would get a concussion and then train through it and keep taking falls and re-aggravating it. And that stuff never goes away. You don't get a callus from that. It doesn't heal back stronger. There's just an inevitable decline.

Every time you get a concussion, it's easier to get the next one. And by the time I got into MMA, any kind of significant strike would make me see stars, give me photo vision, you know, headaches, different kinds of concussion symptoms. And even though my fights, I was winning right away because I had to, because I knew I couldn't take that kind of damage. I couldn't call somebody in the middle of the ring and swing my hands like a Diaz brother

because I didn't have the hardware for it and I knew it. And so it got to the point where these quick fights, I'm doing 50 rounds of sparring for every one of these fights. And I was fought more often than I think anybody in the history of the sport doing more media, more obligations than anybody ever has. And I was starting to get concussions with easier and easier hits, lighter and lighter hits were giving me these symptoms until

right before the home fight, it was starting to be like, not even a significant strike would give me a concussion. And then two weeks beforehand, I slipped down the stairs, going to the car to get my scale, knocked myself out on the stairs, and tore my knee out again. And I was already a replacement for like Joe Lazon or something. No, it was Robbie Lawler that pulled out of the fight.

And I told Dana, I'll always be your girl. I will always fight. When these other guys won't, I will. So I was already feeling it as a replacement. I already, you know, had my rest time completely cut from my last fight and went straight back in training camp and then was going in already concussed. And I was like, well, you just got to win right away.

You just got to be perfect. You just got to do it like you always do it. And it was just like the, there was, it was like, well, you just got to win right away. You just got to be perfect. You just got to do it like you always do it. And it was just like the, there was, it was like one of those things where everything went wrong beforehand. I was like so stressed out. My weight wouldn't come off. I had to like sweat out like 10, 15 pounds beforehand,

even though I was eating perfectly and training all the time. Like my body just wouldn't lose the weight. And I ended up getting the up having the wrong mouth guard there that had the back teeth, like support was gone on the mouth guard. And so the first time I got hit in that match, it knocked all my bottom teeth loose

and I was completely like out on my feet. And if anyone's like really experienced like a really bad concussion, it's like you can't see in three dimensions. Like everything is like two dimensional, you can't see the space between things. You have these big blotches of like photo vision in your eyes and you can't like think clearly. And so I was just trying to make it look like, make it look like I wasn't hurt because I knew if I got swarmed in, I was done. So I had to keep coming forward. Also, can't go backward anyway, because my knee is trashed.

So no one ever knows before, because I never went backward. And so then after that fight, it was just like the tipping point for me. And if I got jabbed, if I got touched, anything, it was giving me a concussion, I was out of my feet. And I was like, well, maybe it was just because all those things happened beforehand. Maybe if I just have a great weight cut

and I don't have a concussion right before going into the match and I have the right mouth guard and all these things, maybe it was just that. And then I went into the next fight and the first time I was touched, I was out of my feet. And then I was like, that was it. I just knew it was over. I couldn't continue to take those impacts

and fight at the top level anymore, which was so heartbreaking because I'd never been faster or stronger or a better mixed martial artist. And I couldn't tell anybody about it because, well, from the first fight, because I didn't want the other person, the next person to know that I literally had a target on my head and then I wanted to go into WWE after that.

And I didn't want them to not hire me because of my concussion history, because they have their own very storied history with it or to not allow me to perform because I was getting concussions while I was working there. And so I had to basically keep it all quiet until now and let everybody make their own assumptions about why I wasn't talking to the media, why I quit.

And as you know, people usually assume the worst. Well, I'll tell you what, I'm one of them because very often as a very unaccomplished fighter, I've always had the feeling that when someone gets tagged and gets knocked out, they're never the same. Now, that can be true, but it can be true for different reasons. You know, it can be that someone has their spirit broken

or something I had never considered until I saw this interview with you was, oh, it was a tipping point. So this is just an injury basically, and we're just not giving her credit for an injury because she doesn't look injured. You know, like if she came back and her knee were twice the size of the other one,

and every time she got kicked in it, she lifted it, we'd be like, oh, you know, there it is, the knee. What was it like for you to have people doing all this guessing about whether it was fear, or you'd lost your heart, or that the game had caught up to you and there were just different skill sets around you that you couldn't compete with anymore. And you wanted to say this, that this is not what it is.

I can't, my kid could hit me in the head and it might destabilize me. It has nothing to do with them. It has everything to do with my head. Why, what was it like to not say that? You know, it was really like disappointing just to see how happily everybody had turned on me and how, you know, people like Joe Rogan,

who were like crying in the ring out of the honor of being able to call my fights, had people I considered friends in the media so quickly turned on me. And I also am kind of grateful for it in a way because it forced me to separate other people's perception of me from my own perception of myself, which I had realized had really become intertwined when you have that kind of outpouring of love and support from people.

It's like you're being love bombed by the world and you're like, how do I keep this going? How do I keep this going? And it was pushing me into a lifestyle that I felt like it was to impress everybody else. Like I was pandering to everybody and I was doing things that I felt like other people would think were cool, was cool, but that I didn't really enjoy. Like I do not enjoy being paparazzi famous. Like I hate it. I do not want to be like that level of fame

where I can't have a normal life. And I was pursuing that kind of lifestyle because I felt like that's what I was supposed to do. And being put through that, it really forced me to like see that, oh, like this isn't real love, this is fake. You know, they don't actually know me, they don't actually love me, they don't actually hate me, this is a reflection of themselves and what they're going through and what I represent to them.

And so it really forced me to take a step back and one of the reasons why, you know, we got into farming and agriculture and, you know, we got into farming and agriculture and, you know, me and my husband at the same time, we're looking for things that were, you know, real validation instead of that outside validation and being able to focus all of our time on our family and not like trying to become as rich and famous as possible forever because what? Like, what does that do for myself? What does that do for my kids? Like, I only wanna do what I really, really enjoy

instead of like, you know, trying to impress everybody all the time. But yeah, it was kind of like really alienating and isolating at the time, because it just felt like nobody understood me, but no one's ever gonna understand you that doesn't know you. So that's the lesson learned.

As you're talking about what the reality was of what changed for you in your fight game, have you heard from any of your old friends, have they, you know, whether it's, you know, a name like Rogan or just people who you thought were your friends that many people don't know, have people reached out to you and been like, I didn't know that, I wish I had known that, I would have never said that. Because nobody is correcting themselves. I haven't heard anybody,

and it's not like I work for the UFC, I don't cover MMA, but I watch a lot of it, and nobody has changed their assessment of you. Not that you have a bad assessment, I mean, you're a legend of the fight games, no question about it. Yeah, but the MMA media hates me, it's fine. No, not a single person has called me or

anything like that. They've all just doubled down and said that I'm making excuses or lying or blowing things out of proportion or not getting credit where it's due or you know, no. I have not. I'll be waiting for that call forever. Are you waiting for it though, or do you get it, and do you get where they're coming from and why?

I'm not waiting for it, and I get that they're a bunch of assholes. That's what I get. I get fuck you. But you know, at least I would rather not have those fake friendships in my life. I would rather that those people expose themselves and I don't leave myself open to them.

I would rather cleanse myself of all those fake superficial relationships and have them still around. Well, maybe it's because I know a little bit what it's like to be dragged when you don't think it's fair. But I'll tell you, when I heard your explanation, not only did it make sense

because I've done so much reporting on head injuries, but I was embarrassed that I had it wrong. And then it like, it set like this cascade effect. Not only did I like have to get you on the podcast and I was like, oh man, she's gonna be like, who, what, why, why, you know? But I really wanted to talk to you because of that misperception.

And it made me rethink other fighters too, by the way. Like in particular Chuck Liddell, like I always loved the Iceman. And I always kind of like, I always found you guys to be kindred spirits, not that you look alike, but that there was so much dog in both of you guys, and you meant so much to the basic appreciation

for mixed martial arts, you know, for my generation of fan. And once he got knocked out, it seemed like it started to happen every other fight. And you just kept hearing about him having trouble in practice. And everybody was like, yeah, it's because he's fat. Yeah, it's because he's partying. Yeah, it's because these other guys aren't just brawlers. And then he started talking about his speech and what he's seeing in his scans and all

that. And once you said it, I started seeing it in so many different people's experience. And I hope that you appreciate the power of that, that whatever they say about you, they can say. That's about your own sense of yourself. But you opened a door to what happens with a lot of fighters that nobody talks about.

Thank you. I appreciate that, but just about owning up to that. And yeah, I think fighters have a lot of pride. That's why we do it. And you don't ever want to admit if something actually hurt you. And a lot of times, if you see someone get hit, that big knockout, that is not so much about that one hit. That is the result of accumulation of, you know, head injuries throughout their entire

life that has met the tipping point. And that's when those knockouts come easier and easier after that. And a lot, I think a lot of fighters don't want to say that like, oh, I was never the same after that because they feel like they're giving credit to that person and that hit and that fight and they never want, you know, that that they still want to say that like, oh, I was never the same after that, because they feel like they're giving credit to that person and that hit and that fight. And they never want, you know, they still have that dog in them, but it's just what comes with the territory.

You are in a fight where you're taking a lot of impacts to the head and a lot of fighters end up, you know, being punch drunk down the road. I have them all like, you They have Alzheimer's and Parkinson's and dementia and all of these things. And you never know until years later when you've taken one hit too many. And if, God forbid, any of these fighters want to show propensity for self-preservation, they're going to get crucified for it, for not being tough enough or being a coward or all these other things.

I'm like, you're not gonna be here when I'm 60 and I can't take a shit on my own? Like, who cares what you think? But it's so hard when you get used to that love bombing for everybody, you wanna keep it going and you wanna keep making them happy. Applause is a hell of a drug and that's why you see these fighters You get used to that love bombing for everybody. You want to keep it going and you want to keep making them happy. Applause is a hell of a drug and that's why you see these fighters that keep coming back

long after they should have retired. And regardless of how much I've been open about everything that's been going on with me, I'm trying to, you know, with my neurological injuries and I'm trying to have kids, still people are like, so we're going to fight again? I'm like, dude, I'm done. I gave you enough. I gave you everything I had. I cut my heart out and I pulled it out

and I spiked it on the canvas of the cage. And they're like, so you're gonna fight again? And they're like, no, I did everything I could. God, I would have been a sack of potatoes at this rate if I keep going, Jesus. Well, at least it shows the appreciation of how much people enjoyed watching you go at it too though. Thank you.

I'll take it that way. I'll take it that way. So it's interesting. Of course, you had the book signing, you have the kids, life is busy. But do you intentionally limit how much MMA you take in and watch? And is it, you know what I mean?

Like, is it intentional or is it circumstantial? Like my husband will put fights on. He likes to keep up with the heavyweights and what's going on with them and he'll put fights on it. And if they're put on, I'll take an interest in it, you know? But I don't sit around like watching Judo, even though I spent 10 years of my life obsessing with Judo. You know, I don't sit around watchingudo. I don't sit around watching fights.

I don't sit around watching wrestling. But you don't wanna be a commentator. You don't wanna be sitting up there bringing the fights for people or anything like that. Would you do that? Would I do what? Go to the fights? Well, would you be like one of the analysts?

I mean, who understands fight game? Analysts? Yeah. I don't know. It's not something I'm really passionate about. It's kind of like math. I'm really good at math, but I don't know. I just don't, it's not something I'm really passionate about. It's kind of like math. Like I'm really good at math, but I don't really enjoy doing math.

Like, you know, I don't really want to like pump out a whole bunch of equations. Like I would do good at it, but I don't think it's, it's not something that I'm really passionate about. How important was it, conscious or unconscious, that you would decide to make your family life with a fighter?

What do you mean? Your husband. The dude is like a prototype. With a fighter? I mean, you can't get anybody who is more MMA. That guy, I went back and watched a bunch of his tape, just to get into this. And sometimes people like, they're like,

hey, I'm not that anymore. I'm gonna become a farmer. I'm gonna do something else. And like they marry like a farmer guy, you know? That dude has MMA written all over him. I mean, for those who don't know, giant of a man, he's like six, seven. He's like the prototype of a heavyweight.

The guys who were asking me, because I had said if I were your generation instead of mine, like I would have definitely gotten way more into MMA than just the self-defense and Jiu Jitsu stuff that I did. And I was like, but I'm a weird size and I would have to wind up fighting guys like her husband who would have dismantled me because they're just superior human beings.

But to you in terms of picking a partner, how much did it mean to you conscious or subconscious that he comes from the world that you know? I didn't like consciously pick him. He was just it. He could have been like, his job could have been like digging ditches for like, you knowes for septic pipes.

I would have fallen in love with him. He is just my person. I think that's why everything has just been so amazing, and every year it's just gotten better. Even when our interests have changed, it wasn't like our overlapping interests that held us together. You know, it was like, you're my person. And so he's like, can get into different things and I can get into different things.

And we can like meet in the middle of the kitchen and be like, Oh my God, let me tell you about this thing that I'm all nerdy about right now. And he'll be like, Oh my God, let me tell you about roping from horses. He's all into that and stuff right now. And I'm like, Oh my God, let me tell you about like writing this comic book that I'm doing. And he could have done anything. It wouldn't have stopped me. It had nothing to do with him being a fighter, but it doesn't help that he's like the most gifted natural athlete that I've ever seen in my life. Let's give you some backstory on the sexiness of my husband. He's 6'7", Hawaiian, and didn't start fighting until he was

26. Before that, he played basketball and goes from never doing a combat sport in his life to in the UFC for as long as it took me to get in the UFC, was the most dynamic heavyweight ever. I mean, like flying knees, Superman punches, he invented the Travis Brown elbows against the cage. I'm the biggest Travis Brown fan ever. And he's the kind of person who just does everything naturally, perfectly the first time. Like you look at some of his earlier fights and he threw like a perfect straight right

when like no one ever taught him that. I'm like, I've worked for like a year to like figure that out. And he just does something once and he's incredible at it. And so, yeah, perfect person to make babies with. He likes to brag that if he was a bull, he would be like the perfect kind because he has small babies that grew up to be really big because we work with cattle, right?

So he's like, oh man, I would be the perfect. I'm like, yes, you are my stud. Thank you so much for giving me small babies that grow large. The Chris Cuomo Project is supported by all American assets. Why? Because you need somebody to help you make the decisions. What do I do to get away from the markets? Should I just put my money in a tin can?

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Of course, you can't make someone do it and you can't stop them either. So she has to learn how to fight just for self-defense and like, you know, the discipline and all the stuff that comes with it. But if she wants to fight This girl is going to annihilate everybody But you know, she couldn't want to play the flute. You never know. So We'll see what she's interested in. How do you balance the I wish I hadn't gotten hit in the head so much,

or I wish it hadn't gone this way, or do you not do any regrets about it, that you don't wanna do it anymore, but it's the journey that you were on and that's okay, and then how do you rationalize going from you and what you think of your own journey to what you'd wanna see your own kid go through? Well, I think your body is the greatest tool you ever own.

And I don't want to put a perfect body in the ground. I don't want to be running triathlons when I'm 70. I want to be like, I've used it all up. You're going to have to roll me up to sit on the ocean. And that's what I want to do. I don't have any regrets at all. I did everything possible that I could with my body while I had it. I mean, I still have it, but it's not, you know, I've battered the hell out of it. We covered this. But I'm

so happy that I did and I don't regret anything. And if I end up paying for it later, I'm happy what I got out of it on the front end. So no regrets, no regrets for me, not yet. Are you anxious to see her get older so you can start teaching her lessons that you learned? Well, I don't want her to grow faster because I love her being this age, but I loved wrestling

in the living room with my mom. She had this game called Eyeball the Terrible Villain. We would jump from couch to couch and she would grab us and wrestle us down and tickle us and we would have to fight away and get on the couch where it was safe. And yeah, my boys are like too big and cool to wrestle around me, but I'm like, oh, well, a little bit. So I just want to wrestle in the living room. When, whenever she gets that age, I'll get really excited about it.

Cause I, that was some of my favorite times with my mom. And then when I got older and started training and my mom teaching me her arm bar, we have a family arm bar. Like, come on, I want to be like part of a lineage, like a martial art matriarchal lineage. Would that be so cool? But if she doesn't want to do it, when our boys graduate from high school, we're going to be moving to Hawaii and we're going to be opening up our own little local dojo where

I want to like teach local kids for free. I was basically taught for free in judo. All the clubs were nonprofit. And so the idea was, if you're taught for free, you teach for free when you're older. And so I want to train my little local ninjas and hopefully one of them will go all the way or they'll just end up being better people for it.

We'll see. So are you learning on this farm and then you want to do another one in Hawaii or is this a project for you guys now and then there's going to be a next phase where you have a different dream in Hawaii? I mean, for Browse the Acres, the dream would be for us to open up like different ranches in different places in the world. Raising Wagyu is kind of like wine in a way where you have like a different vineyard,

a different area will give you like a different variation on the end product. So like the animals that we raise down here, we call them browsey blondes because they're always in the sunshine and they get kind of like a bleach blonde and stuff like that on them. And they have just a different flavor profile to the animals that are raised up in Oregon, which are also awesome, but just in a different way. And so the Hawaii, that kind of environment is just really different.

And I don't think anyone does grain in Hawaii, which we do mostly like a barley based blend and stuff like that. Our partner's dad is a microbiologist, so he curates all of our grain for our cows and a feed for our chickens, which is like a canola-based corn and soy-free blend. But it'd be interesting to see what the environment, what the grass is, what the grain mixture we can get for them out there will do for them. So that's me. People are like sommelier, like wine nerds. I'm like a beef nerd where I'm like,

ooh, what will the environment and these different inputs do to the final product? So we would love to do that one day, but yeah, that's a pie in the sky thing right now. How long is it until the boys are out of high school and you make the move to Hawaii? Two and a half years. Yeah, they're getting like college offers and everything.

They're both like little studs in football. They're amazing. And yeah, whatever they decide to do, they're going to be the absolute best at it. I'm excited for them. How, so you never lived in Hawaii. So how big an adventure will that be for you? Oh, well, I'm kind of, I don't want to tell you the part of Hawaii that I'm

obsessed with, but there's like a little area that I'm very much obsessed with that we go back there all the time. And we've had we bought land there for our forever home a couple of years ago. And we've been putting together like blueprints for like house that we want to die in, you know, so the the downstairs, we have a downstairs theater den area that is eventually going to be our room for when we're too old to get up the stairs. We're putting that thought into it and we're planting, it's on a slope, a whole food forest to go down the whole way.

So you can wake up in the morning and look at the whales and pick your breakfast and that kind of thing. So we've been working on that for years. We got the property, we're gonna start planting the trees soon. We're still putting together the blueprint. So it's not like an adventure in the future. It's one that we're already on

and we're kind of taking on in stages. Very cool. So you're selling online so people can go to Browsy and they can just shop online for your stuff? Yeah, Browsyacres.com and we ship nationwide. And yeah, we have Wagyu, we have poultry, everything's regeneratively raised out on our pastures. And it's not only like so good for you,

but it is really the most delicious meat I've ever had. I can't eat anything else these days, to be honest. You better not. What is your opinion on the grass versus grain when it comes to beef? It depends on how you're doing it. So the way that we do it, we have, like I said, we have a curated feed for them, and

we have mobile grainers. So we have them out on the pasture and we move them to like a different like acre to mob graze on it every single day. And so they are never like just eating a bunch of GMO corn in a feedlot living knee deep in their own shit. They're out on the pasture. They have water, they have supplemental grain, and they have all fresh grass every single day. And like I said,

ours is mostly barley. We have a little bit of cornmeal in it, but it's literally curated by our microbiologists that does it for their nutritional, makes sure that they have everything. And so because I was just realizing the other day, we're doing like a little test pasture in the back here and a bunch of the grass is seeding because we allow it to go through its full cycle. So it's not short all the time. It gets way long and then we allow them to eat it down.

And I realized, because they were just eating all the seeds, I'm like, oh, cows do eat grain. They do get that in their natural environment. They get it through the seeds of the actual stuff that's growing out there. And so a lot of people are like, oh, no, you can't grain them. I'm like, well, they do naturally have it in the grass. It's just like, we're just making sure that they get exactly the balance and everything that they need. But I'm not hating on anyone that does fully grass-fed, grass-finished or anything. It's just for the wagyu, I feel like it's kind of like if you don't give them exactly what they need, all their nutrition, it's like putting unleaded in a Ferrari, like regular

unleaded in a Ferrari. You know what I mean? Any other breed, I'd be like, yeah, yeah, yeah, grass-fed, grass-finished are doing great. But for ours, it really brings it to a whole nother level, which we really wanna prove, that luxury and highest and beef you can get, you don't have to have these animals in a crate

where they don't move and pump them full of grain all the time, you can allow them to have a life worth living and be really, really healthy and end up with meat even better than the people that are creating their animals. I love what you're doing. And I love what it's bringing out of you and how you talk about it.

You talk about the farm with an enthusiasm that I've never heard you talk about fighting with, though you obviously love it. It's just different. What do you want people to take from our fight? Why was it important for you to write this book? God, I feel like the biggest takeaway that I got from it is that if the pursuit of something isn't fulfilling

in itself, then reaching the goal is never going to make up the difference. And a lot of times I define my life by my own failures and shortcomings, but because I was trying to achieve these crazy things, I got to experience and learn all these other things that I'm so much more grateful for in the long run. So that, I would say, is the main takeaway. So it's the appreciation for every aspect of the journey. And you can't put it off until the goal because then the goal is hollow anyway.

Yeah, exactly. It's all about the montage. Who cares what happens at the end of Rocky, right? He actually ended up losing. It's about the montage. You need to enjoy the hell out of your montage. That's all. That's my lesson.

Where is Rhonda Rousey on her happy curve right now in her life? On my happy curve? Oh man, I'm pretty peak happy curve, but if we could get another baby soon, I'd be like breaking the glass ceiling on my happy curve. So fingers crossed, we're still trying. How many kids do you want as a function of Operation Procreation? I would like at least two if not three more. Let's

hope. Let's keep these fingers crossed. I was lucky to get a whole bunch of embryos when I was younger. So we got a couple more shots at it. So we'll see. Have you ever been able to successfully arm bar your husband? Oh God, I know I've thrown him before. You thrown him or you step tripped him or like pushed him down a flight of stairs

or something like that. What? No, no, no, no, no. He actually, he fell head over heels for me. This is so cheesy, but I love it. He came over to me and he was like, can you show me how you do that Whizzer Uchi Mata? You know like a Whizzer Grip. Whizzer Uchi Mata is like this standing split Judo throw

that only really cool people do. So I was like, sure. And I grabbed him and I tossed him through the air and he was like not ready, he didn't know that. I was like, oh, you wanted me to show you? Flute, and I like, you know, he's six, seven and just tossed him in the air and he was like laying on the ground,

staring at the lights and realized he was in love with me. What better way to learn? Rhonda Rousey, I am a big fan, and I think I may be a bigger fan of what you're doing now than even what I saw you do in the Octagon. I love that it's so important for you to create something that lives beyond and that teaches the right lessons. And I also appreciate you for telling the truth about what happened throughout the course of fighting and how that led to the day that you've decided

to make a pivot point in the book in 2015. I see it as all just one continuation of the montage, but I do appreciate the insight into the cumulative effect of fighting that it had on you. And I wish you all good things. Thank you so much. And for the insightful questions, I really appreciate it.

The pleasure is mine. This was a vacation day for me. and for the insightful questions. I really appreciate it. The pleasure is mine. This was a vacation day for me. I am going to order steaks as soon as I get off the phone with you. Oh my God. I really hope that you love them, but I know that you will.

Thank you so much. I have a son who exists almost exclusively on a meat diet. Oh really? Yes. Oh, he's gonna go nuts for this. I mean, we have half Angus, half Wagyu and full blood Wagyu,

which are like two different flavor profiles, but my baby just pound steak. All she eats is steak. And she's like off the charts for height right now. Well, genetics don't hurt either. You know what I mean? It's like, you know, that kid doesn't either. You know what I mean? It helps. It helps.

That kid doesn't have a whole lot of reason to not be excellent when it comes to her physical self. But I wish you good things. If there's anything I can do to help going down the road, I'm a call away. And I wish you and Travis the best. Thank you so much. Thank you for having me on. I'm ordering those steaks.

I'm telling you, I'm a fan of it and I love people who put passion into their product. And Rhonda Rousey and her husband, Travis Brown, seem to be bringing just as much to the farm as they did to the octagon in terms of their passion for purpose. So I appreciated the conversation. It's really interesting that it was about the sum total of what she had been through. That people like me mistook for a change in her fighting ability. It wasn't about her ability at all. I hope you enjoyed the conversation. Thank you for being here. Thank you for joining the Substack. If you want this ad free, until

the next time, let's get after it.