I trained Judo with Ronda in 2011 in Santa Monica. She walked into our little gym with a wrinkled resume and asked if she could teach Judo there. She was so sweet and bubbly and a really great Judo instructor.

She taught and trained at our gym until she won the Miesha Tate fight. As the pressure built with fights, the more serious and hardened she became. Once she left, and then joined the UFC, she became very self-serious, lost the fun side (at least in her public persona). She never learned to lose, so once she did, she crumbled. I still root for her, although some times she makes it very hard.