Rousey Mom: Sisters used to beat up Ronda
In fact, Maria and Jennifer joke that they’re the only women in the world who can lay claim to have beaten up Ronda multiple times.
Ronda Rousey’s mom, Dr. AnnMaria De Mars appeared recently on Stephie Haynes‘ The Three Amigos Podcast for a characteristically compelling interview.
It turns out that more than one woman has bested Rousey in a fist fight!
TAP: Ronda thanked you in her ESPY speech for putting up with so much throughout the years. What kind of shenanigans was she prone to that drove you nuts?
Dr. De Mars: Oh my God, you just don’t even know [laughs]. Her and her sisters fought constantly. In fact, Maria and Jennifer joke that they’re the only women in the world who can lay claim to have beaten up Ronda multiple times.
They would fight over everything; who got the prize in the cereal box, and then Ronda would cry, because she cries over everything. That doesn’t bother me because I’m so used to it, but she would be crying and punching them, and then they’d be in this fist fight in the living room.
When I first got married, my husband had never been married, never had children and he was 42 years old. I had to go out of town on a business trip, so I told Maria, the oldest one, ‘Do not fight with your sisters, and you help Dennis because this is new to him and there are three of you. Do not fight with your sisters.’ So, I call up and say, ‘How are things?’ Dennis was just at a loss for words. He says, ‘Well, they all got into a fist fight at the kitchen table.’
For whatever reason, Maria got up in Ronda’s face and was saying something that Ronda didn’t like. One of them, I think it was Ronda, spit in her face. So Maria slapped Ronda and they all got into a fist fight, and then Jennifer—I don’t know why she jumped in—and I told him, you get each one of those kids on the phone. I yelled at Maria and told her, ‘You are going to be grounded until the sun doesn’t shine. You’ll be lucky if you’re ungrounded by the time you graduate high school. I specifically told you not to fist fight with your sisters.’
I grounded Ronda too, and then she starts arguing with me, ‘I shouldn’t be grounded because you didn’t specifically tell me not to spit in Maria’s face.’ So yes, there was lots and lots of stuff they did.
TAP: How much damage did Ronda and her sisters do to the house? How often did you have to replace dishes or furniture?
Dr. De Mars: All the time [laughs]. Not dishes so much. They were wise, and knew to throw things that were difficult to break. I remember one time they threw an entire set of encyclopedias, A-Z at each other. It’s hard to break encyclopedias, but it was quite a mess when I came home. I open the door, and Jennifer is at the top of the stairs, and she has an office chair lifted up over her head that she’s about to throw at Ronda at the bottom of the stairs. I said ‘Jennifer!’ and she says, ‘What?’ [laughs]
They were wise, and knew to throw things that were difficult to break. I remember one time they threw an entire set of encyclopedias, A-Z at each other.
Listen to this excellent interview in its entirety (15:55 mark)