LOS ANGELES — Rare are the days there isn’t some pang or ache.
Ronda Rousey’s body is a 27-years-in-the-making game of Operation come to life.
That’s true from her cartilage-contorting cauliflower ears, once a source of embarrassment in high school — “it was more socially frustrating an injury than physically” — down to her scarred feet and abused toes.
“I’ve broken all my toes pretty much, some of them several times,” the undefeated UFC women’s bantamweight champion and 2008 Olympic judo bronze medalist said.
“It’s just like a judo thing. I’ve probably had more breaks in my toes than I have toes.”
Leave it to the UFC’s queen of pain, who has vanquished all 10 of her professional MMA foes — via eight arm bars, one TKO and one knockout — to explain her relationship with physical agony in such an analytical nature.
“Pain is just information being delivered to my brain, and it’s supposed to be useful,” said Rousey (10-0), who will defend her title against Denver’s Cat Zingano (9-0) at UFC 184 on Saturday at the Staples Center. “If something hurts, it’s for a reason, because my body wants me to pay attention to it, and I decide whether it’s something I need to pay attention to or not.”
And then there are times attention is paid, but maybe mother and daughter are not on the same page.
Different stories
Rousey and AnnMaria DeMars offer conflicting accounts about an injury. What’s not in dispute: Rousey, during her first and decisively last time ditching school, hurt her left foot jumping over a fence.
Rousey contends her mom, who in 1984 became the first American to win at the world judo championships, sent her to compete in a tournament in northern California as a form of punishment.
“I was like, ‘I don’t have a social life. What are you gonna do?’ ” Rousey recalled. “She was like, ‘You’re gonna fight on it.’ “
DeMars disagrees with the account.
“If I ever write my autobiography, it should be titled “I was put of town at the time,’ ” she said after a laugh.
DeMars said she was in Texas and caught a tournament recap from her daughter, who had gone to the competition with the family of a fellow competitor. While Rousey won the tournament, she suffered one somewhat surprising loss because, as she explained to her mom, she couldn’t push off her foot.
“And I said, ‘Wait … What’s wrong with your foot?’ And the whole story comes out because Ronda’s a terrible liar,” DeMars said.
A trip to the doctor revealed not only a broken second metatarsal but other broken bones.
“He said, and I said, it can’t be that bad. She fought seven matches on it, right? And she won the tournament,” DeMars said. “He said, ‘I’ll X-ray just in case.’ He comes back in and you should have seen the look on his face.”
Chalk it up as another inexplicable encounter between Rousey and her constant companion.
Pain.
This is someone who fought her first pro MMA bout with nine stitches in her left foot — hidden from her opponent and fight officials — after getting bitten by a friend’s dog.
But it was her most recent victory — a first-round knockout of Alexis Davis at UFC 175 on July 5 — that stands out. Not only was it her first via strikes, but Rousey needed just 16 seconds to do it.
Arthritic spurs had been rubbing against her ACL for her two previous fights, and minor surgery on her right knee was planned for mid-July. After tearing the ACL in her right knee when she was 16, followed by arthroscopic procedures at 18 and 20, Rousey was long overdue for maintenance.
“Her knee was so bad she couldn’t squat down,” said Edmond Tarverdyan, Rousey’s trainer.
Doing real damage
Nine seconds into the fight, Rousey hit Davis with a right hook to the temple, followed by a knee to the body, headlock and throw, and nine straight punches. Fight over. Second-fastest title victory in UFC history.
The two other injuries from the Davis fight — four seconds apart — were unexpected. A ganglion cyst on the second knuckle of Rousey’s right fist that had been nagging her for several months. With the right hook that staggered Davis, the cyst exploded, causing a large gash under the glove and protective wrap.
Not only did Tarverdyan predict Rousey would get her first knockout, he knew she wouldn’t shy away from unleashing her damaged right hand.
“She loved that pain a little bit in the knuckle. She was like, ‘I’m gonna knock her out with this knuckle. I love it. I’m gonna squeeze it so hard and break her head with it,’ ” Tarverdyan said. “And she absolutely did that.”
After the knee and throw, Rousey unleashed nine punches, the first one skimming the face of the dazed Davis and doing more damage to Rousey’s right hand.
“I broke my thumb right at the joint, by the wrist, which is good. It means I was really squeezing my hand hard when I hit it, so I was properly hitting,” said Rousey, who received nine stitches for the knuckle and later underwent thumb surgery and had a pin inserted.
“Well, I still missed her face, because I’ve never thrown on an unconscious person before. I didn’t anticipate that her head would bounce, so I missed and grazed my thumb.”
Rousey knows her road to greatness is strewn with not just bumps and bruises, but surgeries and scars. And on her journey, she has embraced every one of them.
“Every single setback or injury has really been a blessing in disguise,” Rousey said. “I think of injury time as not time off, but time to utilize and focus on the things that I can and make them way, way better, and time to specialize is a good thing.”
