{"id":593329,"date":"2026-04-08T11:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593329\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T11:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-08T11:53:08","slug":"ronda-rousey-shares-unexpected-mma-teamup-before-return-i-hated-his-guts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/593329\/","title":{"rendered":"Ronda Rousey shares unexpected MMA teamup before return: ‘I hated his guts’"},"content":{"rendered":"

MMA and pro-wrestling veteran Ronda Rousey<\/a> is now all set to make her MMA comeback<\/a> against Gina Carano next month. However, weeks before her return, the UFC Hall of Famer<\/a> announced a surprising team-up with one of her \u201cenemies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Parting ways with MMA in 2016, Rousey began a career in pro-wrestling, where she spent several years. A WWE WrestleMania main-eventer<\/a>, Rousey has now teamed up with coach Ricky Lundell, who once trained Miesha Tate for her second clash with Rousey. Once sharing a rivalry with Lundell, Rousey has now overcome those to advance her career more professionally.<\/p>\n

In 2012, Rousey defeated Tate via submission in Strikeforce, and she repeated this feat in the UFC in 2013. Before their second fight, Lundell’s excessive politeness inadvertently annoyed Rousey.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were mortal enemies, started off as mortal enemies. He was coaching against me on The Ultimate Fighter and he was so nice; I was like, \u2018This motherf***** is so patronising and fake,\u2019 and I hated his guts,\u201d Rousey said in her latest video<\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a common theme, by the way, that he\u2019s so nice that everyone was like: \u2018This motherf***** is not for real. He\u2019s really just being a passive-aggressive asshole.\u2019 But he\u2019s actually the nicest motherf*****, actually the nicest person you will ever meet \u2013 so nice that you don\u2019t think it\u2019s real,\u201d Rousey continued.<\/p>\n

Ronda Rousey has a deep history with Ricky Lundell<\/p>\n

Long before Lundell became Rousey’s coach, he was also known for coaching Rousey’s husband, Travis Browne, and it was there that Rousey and Lundell got to know each other more. \u201cI was still like, \u2018F*** that guy,\u2019\u201d Rousey said. \u201cHe tried to hurt me, he tried to help somebody hurt me, and you\u2019re dead to me. But then he was [Travis\u2019s] coach. Trav\u2019s like, \u2018No, you\u2019ve got to give him a chance, he\u2019s a really nice guy,\u2019 but I was like \u2018dead to me\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking on how their relationship evolved, Rousey recalled how Lundell’s friendship helped her overcome depression. \u201cI went from hating his guts to him changing my life for the better, and I\u2019ll be eternally grateful. It\u2019s been the greatest experience ever. He is my first ever black belt in judo. He started out as my student and now I\u2019m his student.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rousey is scheduled to fight Gina Carano in May. 2026 at Intuit Dome in Los Angeles, California. The fight will be under the banner<\/a> of Jake Paul<\/a>‘s MVP and streamed live on Netflix.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

MMA and pro-wrestling veteran Ronda Rousey is now all set to make her MMA comeback against Gina Carano next month. However, weeks before her return, the UFC Hall of Famer announced a surprising team-up with one of her \u201cenemies. \u201d Parting ways with MMA in 2016, Rousey began a career in pro-wrestling, where she spent several years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MMA and pro-wrestling veteran Ronda Rousey is now all set to make her MMA comeback against Gina Carano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593330,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[570],"tags":[64,63,480,786,9225,785,15809,85],"class_list":["post-593329","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mma","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-celebrity","tag-fighting","tag-jake-paul","tag-mma","tag-ronda-rousey","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593329","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593329"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593329\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593330"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593329"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593329"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593329"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}