INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — Ronda Rousey takes the framed newspaper down off the wall. She smiles warmly while she reads the headlines celebrating her glorious, dominant victory over Gina Carano — in a fight that is still a month away from actually happening.Later that week, Rousey and her team hold a full dress rehearsal at her temporary training base in Las Vegas for her mixed martial arts comeback. Wearing her fight-night gear, Rousey goes through her warmup before making a cage walk complete with loud music and bright lights in an elaborate visualization exercise to prepare her 39-year-old body and her migraine-prone brain to thrive at showtime.“It just makes everything really special and fun,” Rousey told The Associated Press. “It’s so nice that everything is considered.”These mental exercises are just a fraction of the massive upgrades in Rousey’s training regimen as she prepares to take on fellow MMA pioneer Carano on Saturday night at Intuit Dome in Inglewood, California.
Nearly a decade after she left the sport at the peak of her fame and the nadir of her personal happiness with MMA, Rousey now has a cadre of top-notch coaches and support staff, a world-class training setup and full mental support for her return.
