By NAN Sports Editor
News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Mon. Jan. 2, 2017: As the debate continues over whether UFC fighter Ronda Rousey should retire or not, one thing is clear – few know that the fighter’s roots actually extend to the Caribbean.
While Rousey has announced she would take time to contemplate her future in the sport after Brazilian Amanda Nunes knocked her out in 48 seconds at the December 30th UFC 207 in Las Vegas, little reported is that the 29-year-old’s maternal great-grandparents were both born in Trinidad.
Dr. Alfred Ernest Waddell, her great-grandfather, was born in was born in Tunapuna, Trinidad and Tobago, to Joseph Waddell, who was English, and Claudine Angus Abbott, who was from St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Her great-grandmother Emelia/Amelia Maria/Mona Castillo was born in Trinidad, to Pedro Castillo and Maria Hernandez. Dr. Alfred Ernest Waddell emigrated to Canada and became one of the first black physicians in North America.
Rousey is the first U.S. woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo, which she won at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. She is the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She won 12 consecutive MMA fights, six in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), before suffering her first KO loss to Holly Holm in November 2015 and now her second to Brazil’s Nunes.
