If someone told you that Ronda Rousey’s great grandfather was one of the first black physicians in North America, would you believe it?

I guess it doesn’t matter because it’s true.

The UFC fighter’s mother told a TMZ cameraman this week that Rousey’s great grandfather was Dr. Alfred Waddell. In the film Scattering of Seeds about Waddell, the Trinidadian-born doctor emigrated to Halifax, Canada and began offering medical services to those in need of care:

“In 1928 Alfred left his family to study medicine at Dalhousie’s medical school in Halifax. Amelia Maria finally joined him with their 4 children. Graduating in 1933, he faced the suspicions of Halifax’s white and black communities who regarded him as an “outsider.” His practice took off slowly. Members of the Chinese community were among his first clients.”

In the film, they talk more about Waddell’s achievements.

“Despite his own hardships, Waddell treated many isolated people who had no access to medical care. Waddell brought medicine to far-flung black communities; spoke out against injustice, and even billeted black musicians like Cab Calloway, when he could not get a hotel room. A champion of social equality, Dr. Waddell raised his children with ideas of fairness and earned the respect of an entire city.”

As for Rousey and her whereabouts?

After hosting Saturday Night Live and being on the “Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue” cover later, it seems that Rousey is doing better than she was after losing to Holly Holm at UFC 193. She had admitted that post-loss, she had fleeting thoughts of suicide. In the last four months, she has some “evolving” saying “it’s not about being completely foolproof, it’s about evolving, and there is no room for evolution when it is perfect. I believe that things happen for a reason. Two, five, ten years we will see that this was the best thing that ever happened to me.”

 

You can see the film about Waddell below.

 

(Photo by: Andrew Lipovsky/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images)