Ronda Rousey is one of the most feared women in the world, and, according to Sports Illustrated, may be “The Most Dominant Athlete Alive” today. But just because she kicks butts in the cage doesn’t mean she can’t geek out with the best of us. I don’t wanna pull a nerd cred check or anything, but you’ll be surprised by just how nerdy the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion really is. So, when you’re watching her (most likely) dominate at UFC 190 on Saturday night, remember these reminders that there’s another side to her, too.
She’s A Pokemon Fanatic
Here’s what she said in the above video about loving Pokemon:
“I got the trading cards first. My first card was a Dragonair. Then, I got the video game on Game Boy Color, and my first one was Pokemon Blue. My first Pokemon was a Charmander, and I was immediately hooked on it. I lost a bunch of weight that summer and I was a small kid cuz I would not stop playing… like I would literally be playing it and I wouldn’t stop, and I would have a stack of graham crackers next to me because I would not get up to eat.”
“I’ve gotten every single version of every generation of the game. So, when Blue came out, I didn’t just get Blue and wait for Silver. No. I got Blue, I beat Blue. I got Red, I beat Red. I got Yellow, I beat Yellow. And then when Gold and Silver and Platinum came out, I got all of those and beat those. Just the first game that I got alone, that one cartridge had 200 hours on it.
“The White, the Black, the X, the Y, the X2, the Y2, Pokemon Stadium, Pokemon Stadium 2, the only ones I didn’t play were like Pokemon Pinball and all that bullsh*t. I did play Pokemon Snap, I got the perfect score in Pokemon Snap. You have to keep hitting Mew… I love Mew. Mew was my favorite. And I didn’t want to hit Mew. But, y’know… for the art… sometimes you just gotta hit a Pokemon.”
She Is Also Obsessed With Dragon Ball Z
Here’s Rousey in the above video talking about Dragon Ball Z:
“I used to come home and take VHS tapes and put a piece of tape over the little square and watch em over and over. I was obsessed. I knew I could be a superhero and get better if I trained hard. Vegeta is where it’s at, Vegeta is my cartoon crush. Love him. I would have gone toon for him. I would have Roger Rabbit‘d the sh*t out of some Vegeta. Dude, he knocked up Bulma and then ditched out on her to go train on the moon. That’s hardcore.”
Rousey is a diehard Dragon Ball Z fan and regularly shows up for events wearing a Goku hoodie. When she made a surprise appearance at WrestleMania 31, she even wore a Vegeta shirt.
She Dresses Up As Saturday Morning Cartoons For Halloween
Some love for Sailor Moon and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? Awesome. She even says her trademark hair buns were based on Sailor Moon.
She’s A Night Elf Hunter In World Of Warcraft
And from the above video, Rousey on her latest passion, World of Warcraft:
“I actually started playing when I was in Bulgaria shooting The Expendables, because I had a lot of down time. I started with a Night Elf Hunter, now I have a Blood Elf Rogue, a Night Elf Hunter, and I have another Night Elf Druid, but I’m not as into her so much right now because I like outfits, and the Druids kind of look better when they’re shape-shifting.”
“I just like mounts and outfits. So, right now, I’m totally more into my Night Elf because I just got a flying mount for it. It’s a Snowy Griffin. I’m pretty stoked on it. Once I could fly, I was like, ‘What, three dimensional everywhere!’ It just blew my mind. So, I’ve been flying around everywhere this whole camp.”
You can check out Ronda’s Night Elf here.
She’s Really Into Making Fractal Art
Via Bloody Elbow:
“I make fractals. They’re like mathematical pictures. My step-dad is actually a rocket scientist, so in his free time, he gave me a fractal program for fun. He showed me how to use it when I was about 9 or 10, and I made thousands of fractals. You know how you make a graph, and you see the line on the graph of an equation? If you take that same equation through every single point, it will make a picture. You’re pretty much seeing pictures of different equations that you mesh into each other.
“You see fractals in nature all the time like nautical shells and stuff like that. They are those things that people look at when they’re tripping on acid, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, it’s infinite,’ because you can zoom in forever and you an zoom out forever, because it’s a number. It’s infinite. It’s really cool, you can play with the colors and everything. If you go to fractaldomains.com you can go to the galleries and see ‘Ronda’s galleries’. Those are a bunch of the fractals that I made when I was younger. I still make them. It’s different. I’m a closet nerd.”
If there’s a nerdier fighter out there in the world, we haven’t met them. And if they do show up, they’ll have to fight Rousey for the title. I don’t think that’ll go too well for any of them.
