Before Ronda Rousey rose to fame as an UFC champion, the star looked back at the time when she was almost broke, and working as a bartender helped her manage her finances.
As a struggling judo athlete back in the day, Rousey had to work in a bar called Redwood Bar and Grill located in the heart of LA. She served as a bartended for two years.
Christian Frizzell, bar owner of Redwood and Grill recalls, "Ronda had thrown out the first pitch and she happened to be sat in front of us. We got talking and I found out that she wasn't having an easy time finding work. She had been a bartender before and I hired her on the spot." Rousey met Frizzell in a Los Angeles baseball game.
When Rousey failed to get the Olympic gold medal, she was devastated and lost her track for some time. She remembered that in another part-time job she had, she used to make herself cocktails, smoke cigarettes and said she would also receive marijuana from some of her customers.
"Ronda was kind of having a hard time," said Frizzell. "She worked here, and a few other places and was really finding it hard to make ends meet".
"When she came her bar-tending skills were not very good but like with everything else she does, she honed in. What you see is what you get. It is intense. The older women responded and took her under their wing and within a few weeks she was as good as anyone else."
Until her transition to martial arts changed the course of history for her.
Frizzell recalled, "I remember there being an (MMA) fight on (television), one of the first ones with women, and her saying she could do that."
"I encouraged her to do it and thought she could go as far as she wanted to. When she fights, everyone here is right behind her. We know what kind of person she is and how hard she has had to work to be successful," he then added.
Rousey is now preparing for her upcoming fight with Holly Holm and is expected to make between five to ten million dollars.
