Watch Ronda Literally Throw Down With Bellator Middleweight Champ Gegard Mousasi

There’s a reason action films usually contain epic training montages or the journies along the way. In Batman Begins, fans were enthralled as Bruce Wayne scaled a magical and majestic Himalayan mountain to reach Ra’s al Ghul’s top secret ninja school. That was awesome. 

Ronda basically did the same thing in a multi-part MiddleEasy documentary, except she drove to Stockton and instead of a militant terrorist organization she trained with Nick and Nate Diaz. But a whole year before that, she was still rolling with elite warriors like judo black belt Gegard Mousasi.      

“It was really cool getting the opportunity to train with Gegard. It was at a time I was hustling for any kind of exposure or even any real high-level training for that matter,” Ronda said. “He was not only cool enough to take time out of his training to move around with me for a few rounds but gave me some really great work too.”

Back in 2011, Ronda was just getting her MMA career started. Meanwhile, the Armenian Asassin had already held the DREAM middleweight and light heavyweight titles, as well as the Strikeforce light heavyweight championship. Yet here they were, grappling together in this YouTube time capsule.

In-between the laughs and Mousasi jokingly hoisting her up in the air, Ronda was still able to get an ouchi gari, ko uchi gari, and sumi gaeshi in the friendly sparring session despite the 70lb weight difference. You know it’s something special when (that sadistic bastard) Gene LeBell is cageside watching intently.

“He didn’t just try to outmuscle me and prove that he’s bigger and stronger, he really respected me and gave me a great workout,” she said. “Gegard even allowed some people there to record and post it. So, not only did he give me great training but amazing exposure at as well.”

“At that time, especially when women were still getting laughed out of gyms, having someone as respected as Gegard Mousasi putting me over as a fighter helped immensely,” she said. “Not just to get people to start taking notice of me but also respecting what I was bringing to the sport of MMA.”

We all know what happened to Ronda since then, but Mousasi is currently on an eight-fight win streak and has the Bellator Middleweight Championship after amazing runs in every organization imaginable.