MMA Champ Rousey Opens Up About Speech Therapy, Eating Disorders & Body Image

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It has been quite a superb year for UFC champion Ronda Rousey, who made headlines when she beat Bethe Correia in a 34-second knock-out fight that led her to defend her bantamweight title. In fact, the Daily Mail reports that her time inside the octagon ring during her last four fights are just a little over two minutes.

Rousey said of her fight with Correia: "I'm really happy with my performance. It wasn't perfect, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I think I proved a lot to myself and everybody else about the diversity of my style and what I can do in there. I don't mind that everything ends quickly."

Rousey's success doesn't come easy, however, as the 28-year old athlete and Olympic medalist admitted in her latest Reddit AMA that she had encountered several obstacles on her journey to become a renowned MMA fighter.

Rousey was afflicted with Childhood Apraxia of Speech growing up, and admitted to going to therapy for it in her Reddit AMA.

She wrote: "I love my speech therapist – I thought she was super cool and I didn't even know I was in speech therapy. I'd like to tell any kid struggling with speech that anything can be overcome with hard work regardless of how insurmountable the odds seem. Shout out to all speech therapists. You're all awesome. And the best thing about my recovery was that I was never allowed to feel interior."

Kimberly Haas-McEneny, a mother whose child also had apraxia, first approached Rousey about her speech impediment during a book signing in Colorado.

She told Local SYR: "Ronda couldn't read a single word until she was 4, and she couldn't combine two words together until she was 6, and there's not many disorders where you're that late speaking." Haas-McEneny also shared that she asked Rousey to post about apraxia on social media to raise awareness, which the athlete graciously did.

Rousey also spoke of her experiences dealing with an eating disorder, the Huffington Post reports.

"It feels very liberating to [be] free of the guilt that used to come with every meal," she said. "I feel like I have so much extra space in my brain now that I'm not constantly thinking about the next meal and trying to eat as much as possible every day while still losing weight. I feel amazing. I (think) I look amazing. And I just ate some bomb-ass french toast this morning."

Speaking of looking and feeling great, the Judo black belter, recently responded to body shamers who called her "masculine." 

TIME reports that during Rousey's promotion for her fight with Correia, she addressed critics by saying, "I have this one term for the kind of woman my mother raised me to not be...The kind of chick that just tries to be pretty and be taken care of by someone else. That’s why I think it’s hilarious if my body looks masculine or something like that. Listen, just because my body was developed for a purpose other than f—ing millionaires doesn’t mean it’s masculine. I think it’s femininely badass...because there’s not a single muscle on my body that isn’t for a purpose because I’m not a do nothing b—. It’s not very eloquently said but it’s to the point and maybe that’s just what I am."

Rousey also spoke out on body image in her Reddit AMA, writing, "Women are constantly being made to feel the need to conform to an almost unattainable standard of what’s considered attractive so they can support a multitude of industries buying shit in the pursuit of reaching this standard."

She added: "I accept that I have NO control over my image already. So, I try not to let the state of my perception have any effect on my happiness. You can never truly know anyone through only media anyway. If anything I just try to keep in mind that I'm an entertainer and not a politician or Miss America."