Ronda Rousey is now a UFC champion, actress and Olympic medalist but her road to glory was bumpy, according to her new autobiography.
The fighter featured in Furious 7 and Expendables 3 struggled with substance abuse as a teen after a childhood in California marked by her father's tragic suicide and her own early battle with developmental delays.
Now 28 and at the cusp of mainstream fame, Rousey has claimed victory over her internal foes as she continues to triumph over her enemies in the ring.
'I felt a level of joy that I had never experienced before,' Ronda writes in My Fight / Your Fight, which was released this month.
However, the joy was prefaced by hardship very early on, notes the New York Post.
Rousey was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, depriving her of oxygen in her first moments alive.
She pulled through but the lack of oxygen caused developmental delays and she didn't speak until she was 4 years old.
He'd suffered since his back was seriously injured in a freak accident years before and asphyxiated himself in the garage while Rousey and her family watched Nickelodeon inside.
'None of us were the same after that,' she said.
However, Rousey soon had a more positive transformational experience after learning from newspaper clippings that her mother was a renowned champion martial artist.
Her mother, AnnMaria De Mars, is a sixth-degree back belt who became the first American to ever win the world judo championships.
With her mother's help, Rousey toughened up. 'I learned that if my toe broke, I could run on it anyway.'
By 16, Rousey had dropped out of high school to train for the 2004 Olympics but didn't make the cut.
She kept training and in 2008 won the bronze in judo in Beijing. She dropped out of site for a while and took a bartending job.
She says she would start each day with a shot of vodka and a cigarette and had a growing Vicodin habit.
'I didn’t think I could get any lower,' she said. Thankfully, her salvation soon came in the form of UFC.
She won her first fight in mere seconds and has gone on to become the cornerstone of the UFC women's division.
(dailymail.co.uk)
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