Our Fight: A Memoir is truly the Ronda Rousey story told under her own terms. She talks about her early struggles with speech, and sadly losing her beloved father, who she called “her hero,” to suicide when she was only eight. Rousey confesses that she considering taking her own life after suffering her first defeat in the Octagon in 2015. Rousey talks about concussions, and having her brain be pushed to the edge.
When UFC boss Dana White stated that he had no plans to add a women’s division, Rousey took it as a personal challenge. She started judo training at age eleven. Rousey became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Her goal was to retire from the MMA world undefeated, however, she recalls the vigorous training schedule to prepare for fights, and the demands of frequently defending her UFC title and satisfying the multitudes of media requests.
Rousey herself provides exquisite narration for her audiobook. She might have a new career of narrating audiobooks in the future. She shares her love story with fellow fighter Travis Browne. Rousey states she broke one of her cardinal rules of no dating in the gym by dating Browne. What started out as exchanging beard memes through text messages, blossomed into romance, despite Brown being married at the time.
After losing to Holly Holm, Rousey says she came back to fight again for Dana White and the fans, not for herself. In her last UFC fight, she recalls fighting not to lose, and then turning down a rematch with Amanda Nunez, knowing her MMA career was over. Then she received an invite to appear at Wrestlemania 31, which opened to door to two separate stints with World Wrestling Entertainment.
I absolutely love Rousey’s honesty talking about WWE experiences. She recalls the lack of direction from management, often booking matches shortly before competitors entered the ring. Rousey said then WWE boss Vince McMahon treated talent like action figures, and she felt the company never valued her as a premiere talent – having no say in her creative direction, having plans often changed. She also refers to the WWE product as mediocre.
Our Fight: A Memoir is anything but mediocre, and it is an early candidate for audiobook of the year!
By: Ronda Rousey, Maria Burns Ortiz – contributor
Narrated by: Ronda Rousey
Length: 8 hrs and 22 mins
Release date: 04-02-24
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing