It is a topic best avoided.
Any mention of last year’s “The Ultimate Fighter” in the vicinity of Ronda Rousey is like taking a stick to a hornet’s nest.
The UFC reality show, with female coaches and fighters for the first time in 18 seasons, was viewed as a vehicle to highlight the women’s bantamweight champion and promote a title defense against rival coach Miesha Tate.
It turned into a six-week ordeal away from home that became even more tumultuous once the episodes aired and Rousey took issue with the editing.
Rousey swears — in both promises and colorful language — she will never do the show again.
Yet from darkness comes light.
Without that show, there would be no sisterhood at Glendale Fighting Club.
There would be no Monday nights watching “WWE Raw” in Rousey’s Venice home, followed by choreographed wrestling routines in the living room and the gym.
The best stable of female MMA fighters would not exist.
There would be no Four Horsewomen.
Invitation
When Rousey went to Las Vegas last summer to film “The Ultimate Fighter,” she took trainer Edmond Tarverdyan to lead her coaching staff. Also in tow was training partner Marina Shafir, Rousey’s best friend since their days as teenagers competing in judo tournaments.
“Me and Marina were always so tight because we never really got along with other girls. Because what do we have in common with the average girl my age?” Rousey said. “’The Ultimate Fighter’ really brought me together with a bunch of other like-minded women.”
Of the four women on Team Rousey, the two who stood out and bonded with Rousey and Shafir were women’s MMA pioneer Shayna Baszler, 33, and upstart 27-year-old Jessamyn Duke. Upon the show’s completion, the two continued to keep in touch with Rousey and Shafir.
Pretty soon, both were visiting and training at Tarverdyan’s Glendale Fighting Club.
For Rousey and Shafir, the next step was a no-brainer. They had a big house and rooms available.
Why not?
“So when Jessamyn comes out and hangs out for a little bit, I was like ‘Marina, can we keep her? Can we keep her?’ “ Rousey, 27, said with her bright smile and a big laugh. “And so the same thing when Shayna came out: ‘Can we keep her? Can we keep her?’
“Even when they came out to visit, it was like, ‘You guys are just moving in.’ I just said it like it was already a decision before they even decided to do it. I was like, ‘Yeah, this’ll be your room …’ It was like a foregone conclusion.”
Shafir, who just turned 26, wouldn’t change a thing.
“All of us are such different personalities, but we come together like a puzzle. It’s crazy,” she said. “Ronda and I will sit in the living room and they’ll be out doing whatever. We’ll just sit there and be like, ‘The house is perfect.’ ”
Formation
Conquest. War. Famine. Death.
Each riding a different colored horse, based on interpretations of the New Testament, they are widely viewed as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
Hundreds of years later, sportswriter Grantland Rice poetically applied the moniker to the backfield of the 1924 Notre Dame football team.
In the 1980s, it was borrowed to describe one of the most popular and successful groups in professional wrestling. Led by Ric Flair, they were the jet-setting bad boys.
Credit Baszler, a longtime pro wrestling fan, for coining the name The Four Horsewomen.
“I love it. It started off kind of as a joke, but I think it’s a really good representation of us,” Baszler said. “We’re kind of heels the people love to love and love to hate. That’s kind of the same as the The Four Horsemen. We’re The Four Horsewomen.”
And with Rousey — with her 9-0 record, magazine covers and movie roles in “Expendables 3,” “Fast & Furious 7” and “Entourage” — catching heat for how she came off on “The Ultimate Fighter” and refusing to shake Tate’s hand after beating her at UFC 168, it’s not such a stretch.
But for all the booing, fans love The Four Horsewomen. “Throwing up the fours” — holding up four fingers — has become commonplace when any of the fighters makes an appearance or pose for pictures.
A united front has become a phenomenon.
That seemed improbable just two years ago after Rousey won the Strikeforce title.
“There were days after I won the belt and I’d still be training alone and I’d be driving alone so many hours a day. It’d get lonely,” said Rousey, who was named the UFC champion in November 2012. “It’s cool, but you’re lonely. It’s so helpful having other people there on the same quest as you and they understand what you’re going through and they’re excited about the same things. We all just really feed off each other.”
Continue reading — The Four Horsewomen, Part One: Marina Shafir becoming a submission sensation
