UFC Star Ronda Rousey Spent Part of Her Childhood in North Dakota

Even if you don't watch UFC, there's a pretty good chance you know Ronda Rousey's name. What you may not know is that she spent part of her childhood in Jamestown, North Dakota.

When she was born, Rousey's umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck, which led to her having a condition called apraxia. Apraxia is a neurological childhood speech sound disorder, which means those that have it struggle with verbal communication, according to Wikipedia.

To help with her apraxia, Rousey's family moved from Riverside, California to Jamestown, so she could work with speech therapists from Minot State University, according to Rolling Stone.

Though her family didn't spend much time in North Dakota before returning to California, Rousey has mentioned her time in Jamestown in a slew of different interviews.

Of course, the rest of Rousey's story reads like something out of a movie: she dropped out of high school (she did end up earning her G.E.D.), qualified for both the 2004 Olympics in Atlanta and the 2008 Olympics in Beijing in judo, where she became the first American woman to win an Olympic medal, took up MMA in 2010, made her professional MMA debut in 2011, won the Strikeforce women's bantamweight championship in 2012, and also became the UFC's first female champion in 2012.

Since entering the UFC in 2012, Rousey has become one of the sport's biggest stars, holding onto the women's bantamweight title until Saturday, November 14th, 2015, when she was knocked out by Holly Holm at UFC 193 in Australia.

Rousey has become a star outside of the UFC, too, appearing at the WWE's Wrestlemania 31 and in Hollywood features films like 'Expendables 3,' 'Entourage,' and 'Furious 7.'

And, to think, it all sort of started here in North Dakota. How cool is that?

[Wikipedia]