INGLEWOOD, California — 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 (AP). “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.
That’s noteworthy because Rousey became arguably the most famous athlete in women’s combat sports history despite having a fraction of the coaching help and outside-the-cage structure given to many top fighters.
Rousey previously trained out of a storefront fight club in Glendale, California, with Edmond Tarverdyan, the coach to whom she remained intractably loyal while the entire sport questioned his knowledge and suitability — to the point where Rousey’s own mother, AnnMaria De Mars, publicly called him an idiot.
When asked how she looks back on her years with Tarverdyan, Rousey said: “We accomplished a lot, but I think we went as far as we could together.”
Many years later, Rousey has experienced what’s possible outside those self-imposed boundaries, and she hopes to show it against Carano.
When Rousey began to explore the possibility of an MMA return last year, her husband — former UFC heavyweight Travis Browne — encouraged her to team up with his longtime trainer, Ricky Lundell. Rousey actually hadn’t liked Lundell in their initial encounters, but the enthusiastic coach quickly won her over.
And when they got to work, Rousey finally recognized everything she didn’t have in her first time around. AP
PARIS — Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) clinched a record-extending 14th French league title after winning 2-0 at closest rival Lens on Wednesday (Thursday in Manila).
PSG needed only a draw to seal a fifth consecutive Ligue 1 crown and is now nine points ahead of Lens with one game left.
Khvicha Kvaratskhelia scored in the 29th minute and Ibrahim Mbaye added the second goal in stoppage time after Lens missed several chances to score at Stade Bollaert-Delelis.
“Without a doubt this was difficult, Lens did so well this season,” PSG coach Luis Enrique said. “I think they deserved more tonight but (goalkeeper Matvei) Safonov was incredible tonight.”
The match was rescheduled from April 11 by the French league to help titleholder PSG’s ambitions in the Champions League. PSG takes on Premier League leader Arsenal in the Champions League final on May 30 in Budapest.
Although the postponement was strongly contested by Lens, coach Pierre Sage’s side had no say in the matter.
Lens also has a final to prepare for — against Nice in the French Cup on May 22 — and Sage left his two best forwards — wingers Florian Thauvin and Allan Saint-Maximin — on the bench against PSG until the hour mark.
PSG punished a Lens error when Dembélé intercepted a sloppy pass from defender Malang Sarr and fed Kvaratskhelia, who scored with a clinical finish.
PSG scored in stoppage time through Mbaye, the 18-year-old forward who thumped a pass from Désiré Doué in off the crossbar moments after Lens had fluffed yet another chance.
Lens should already have been level — or even ahead — at the break but striker Wesley Saïd misjudged a close-range header and then shot straight at Safonov in first-half stoppage time.
Safonov kept out another effort from Abdallah Sima early in the second half when the striker went clean through. Sima then hit the post after collecting a superb pass from Thauvin in the 74th.
“I had some luck today,” Safonov acknowledged. “If my opponents had put their shots a bit more either side of me it would have been different.”
Saint-Maximin was dangerous when he came on in the second half but wasted several good situations when excessively trying to put himself in the perfect shooting position.
“We created a lot of chances and stopped them playing. My players deserved at least a draw tonight,” Sage said. “Their goalkeeper had a great game but we missed a lot of chances. They had two chances and scored.”
The last team to stop PSG winning the title was Lille in 2021. This season was closer than the last, however, when PSG sealed the title without losing and with six games left.
In the other match, Strasbourg won 2-1 at Brest in a game also rescheduled because of Strasbourg’s involvement in the UEFA Conference League, where it lost to Rayo Vallecano in the semifinals.
