By Ramona Shelburne, ESPN.com
The cabin is about two hours outside of Los Angeles. Directions come in the form of a screenshot — cell service is spotty up here, so it’s best to have a backup.
Ronda Rousey‘s all bundled up when she answers the front door. She knows what this looks like. She’s broken, right? She’s been hiding out in a basement since her stunning loss to Holly Holm last November. Shattered in a million pieces. Listening to Adele and hissing in the dark. She smiles. It’s fun to feed it sometimes.
„It’s like I’m doing the chick version of growing a beard and living in a cave, you know?“ Rousey says. „You remember when Batman goes off to this ninja place, then time lapses and you see he’s grown this beard? My woman version of growing a beard was letting my highlights grow out and changing my number.“
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But this isn’t some remote cabin at the end of a winding dirt road. This is a small mountain community. Her neighbors know who she is and what she is doing, but they don’t bother her here.
On this crisp November morning, Rousey wears a hoodie and Ugg boots for the short walk from the cabin to the detached garage her longtime trainer Edmond Tarverdyan has turned into a dojo. Six days a week, twice a day, Rousey makes this trip to train for her comeback fight against Amanda Nunes on Dec. 30.
Sometimes, as she walks over, she’ll stop at a small chicken coop.
„The chickens don’t need me to entertain them,“ she says.
