Sports IllustratedRonda Rousey might have taken home the Best Female Athlete and Best Fighter honors at this year's ESPY Awards amid becoming the undefeated UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion, but that doesn't mean everything has come easy for the 28-year-old.
Rousey, who has also snagged roles in Furious 7, The Expendables 3 and the Entourage movie, opened up to Cosmpolitan.com about being comfortable in her own skin and owning every inch of it. The athlete also revealed she gained 15 pounds for her nearly naked feature in the 2015 Sports Illustrated swimsuit edition because she doesn't feel her "most attractive" at 135 pounds, which she maintains for fighting.
"I felt like I was much too small for a magazine that is supposed to be celebrating the epitome of a woman," Rousey explained. "At 150 pounds, I feel like I'm at my healthiest and my strongest and my most beautiful."
Despite having a jaw-dropping figure at any weight, the star revealed she hasn't always had a positive relationship with her body.
"I grew up as an athlete doing judo, so I didn't really have a conventional, feminine body type," she recalled "I grew up thinking that because my body type was uncommon [i.e., athletic], it was a bad thing. Now that I'm older, I've really begun to realize that I'm really proud that my body has developed for a purpose and not just to be looked at."
The MMA champ added that, "It took a lot of time to develop a healthier relationship with food and with my weight," and she now focuses on her happiness rather than a number on a scale.
As for her biggest fear? Let's just say she's "totally down" with spiders and heights.
"I'm scared of failure so much more than any of the other girls I compete against that I work so much harder than they possibly could," she said, adding, "I go to bed every night thinking about all the possible ways that I can succeed."
And although Rousey considers herself "the most chill couch potato you could ever meet," claiming that time away from the ring consists of hanging out with her dog and watching Planet Earth documentaries, she has no plans of backing down against her competitors any time soon.
"I want to be the one that retires undefeated and on top and has that legacy, and I believe that I'm the one that can get it done. I might make an investment and lose some money, but that's something I can recover from. There's no way to recover after tarnishing an undefeated record," Rousey said.