Nickname: Queen of Spades Birthplace: Sioux Falls, S.D.Raised: Sioux Falls, S.D. Age: 33Last fight: Lost to Alexis Davis via technical submission (rear-naked choke) in third round at Memorial Hall in Kansas City, Kan., on Jan. 5, 2013.Twitter: @QoSBaszlerQuote: “You’re gonna be hard pressed to find a group of fighters, especially in women’s MMA, that are as skilled combined as we are. So I think it’s an ideal situa-tion that we’re here to push each other.”

Nickname: The Gun Birthplace: Whitesburg, Ky.Raised: Richmond, Ky. Age: 27Last fight: Defeated Peggy Morgan via unanimous decision at The Ultimate Fighter 18 finale at Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas on Nov. 30, 2013.Twitter: @JessamynDukeQuote: “There’s a lot to learn, there’s a lot to practice, there’s a lot to do. It’s not just being physically gifted. You’ve got to be mentally there, too. And we all kind of have that.”

SHAYNA BASZLER JESSAMYN DUKE

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by choreographed wrestling routines in the living room and the gym.

The best stable of female MMA fighters would not ex-ist.

There would be no Four Horsewomen.

InvitationWhen Rousey went to Las

Vegas last summer to film “The Ultimate Fighter,” she took trainer Edmond Tarve-rdyan to lead her coaching staff. Also in tow was train-ing partner Marina Shafir, Rousey’s best friend since their days as teenagers com-peting in judo tournaments.

“Me and Marina were al-ways so tight because we never really got along with other girls. Because what do we have in common with the average girl my age?” Rousey said. “’The Ulti-mate Fighter’ really brought me together with a bunch of other like-minded women.”

Of the four women on Team Rousey, the two who stood out and bonded with Rousey and Shafir were women’s MMA pioneer Shayna Baszler, 33, and up-start 27-year-old Jessamyn Duke. Upon the show’s com-pletion, the two continued to keep in touch with Rousey and Shafir.

Pretty soon, both were visiting and training at Tarverdyan’s Glendale Fighting Club.

For Rousey and Shafir, the next step was a no-brainer. They had a big house and rooms available.

Why not?“So when Jessamyn

comes out and hangs out for a little bit, I was like ‘Ma-rina, can we keep her? Can we keep her?’ “ Rousey, 27, said with her bright smile and a big laugh. “And so the same thing when Shayna came out: ‘Can we keep her? Can we keep her?’

“Even when they came out to visit, it was like, ‘You guys are just moving in.’ I just said it like it was already a decision before they even decided to do it. I was like, ‘Yeah, this’ll be your room ...’ It was like a foregone conclu-sion.”

Shafir, who just turned 26, wouldn’t change a thing.

“All of us are such dif-ferent personalities, but we come together like a puzzle. It’s crazy,” she said. “Ronda and I will sit in the living room and they’ll be out do-ing whatever. We’ll just sit there and be like, ‘The house is perfect.’ ”

FormationConquest. War. Famine.

Death.Each riding a different col-

ored horse, based on inter-pretations of the New Testa-ment, they are widely viewed as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.

Hundreds of years later, sportswriter Grantland Rice poetically applied the mon-iker to the backfield of the 1924 Notre Dame football team.

In the 1980s, it was bor-rowed to describe one of the

most popular and success-ful groups in professional wrestling. Led by Ric Flair, they were the jet-setting bad boys.

Credit Baszler, a longtime pro wrestling fan, for coining the name The Four Horse-women.

“I love it. It started off kind of as a joke, but I think it’s a really good representation of us,” Baszler said. “We’re kind of heels the people love to love and love to hate. That’s kind of the same as the The Four Horsemen. We’re The Four Horsewomen.”

And with Rousey — with her 9-0 record, magazine covers and movie roles in “Expendables 3,” “Fast & Furious 7” and “Entourage” — catching heat for how she came off on “The Ulti-mate Fighter” and refusing to shake Tate’s hand after beating her at UFC 168, it’s not such a stretch.

But for all the booing, fans love The Four Horse-women. “Throwing up the fours” — holding up four fin-gers — has become common-

place when any of the fight-ers makes an appearance or pose for pictures.

A united front has become a phenomenon.

That seemed improba-ble just two years ago after Rousey won the Strikeforce title.

“There were days after I won the belt and I’d still be training alone and I’d be driving alone so many hours a day. It’d get lonely,” said

Rousey, who was named the UFC champion in Novem-ber 2012. “It’s cool, but you’re lonely. It’s so helpful having other people there on the same quest as you and they understand what you’re go-ing through and they’re ex-cited about the same things. We all just really feed off each other.”

SensationShafir was clearly strug-

gling.Coming off an illness, the

sparring session wasn’t go-ing as planned. Rousey, Baszler and Duke stood side by side outside the ring, qui-etly analyzing the action.

From the ring apron, Tarverdyan’s criticism was well-founded but loud and direct.

“Marina, stop leaning back! Move forward!”

After four rounds, Shafir dejectedly removed her headgear and sat by herself.

“It was a hard day. I was really sick. And there are no excuses, I should have per-formed better,” said Shafir, the only one of the four not in the UFC because she fights at 145 pounds — the UFC has only 115- and 135-pound women’s divisions. “It’s a learning thing. That’s a les-son that’s already in my brain. Yeah, because I need time. I’m one of those people, if I’m pissed off about some-thing, I need time to cool off and immediately think real-ism in my brain.

“If I don’t, just leave me alone. Keep me on ice. Pre-tend I’m not there.”

Weeks later, with a 5-0 amateur record, Shafir would be making her pro-fessional MMA debut April 12 at Chaos at the Casino 4 at Hollywood Park Casino in Inglewood.

Nearly two dozen fighters and their coaches rebuffed offers to challenge Shafir. A running joke at Glendale Fighting Club is featured on the board promoting upcom-ing fights: “Marina Shafir vs. Victim.”

Shafir eventually got an opponent on eight days’ no-tice, needing only 1:57 to de-feat Chandra Engel — her sixth first-round submission victory in six fights.

All in less than two years.In her corner were Rousey

and Tarverdyan. No one had

a bigger smile than Tarve-rdyan.

“These girls are tough. They have hard days in here. I tell them this is the way you gotta get up. They just do what I tell them,” he said. “They’re like machines. Mentally, they’re strong and they’re real focused. When they want to learn some-thing, they put 100 percent energy and effort.”

Not far away in the crowd were Baszler and Duke. Only this time, they were far from quiet. Maybe there was some analysis, but it was mostly wholehearted support.

Loud and direct.“We’re not gonna give

each other lip service. We’re not faking the funk for any of us,” Baszler said. “We’re pretty straightforward and I think that’s why it works so well between the four of us, is we don’t hold back from each other.

“We all like to deal with it differently. But we know each other enough. So yeah, you kinda saw it that day. When Marina’s down, you gotta let her be down for a bit. It’s not even anything conscious. We just know each other.”

And in the ring, Shafir celebrated with a group pic-ture. Throwing up the fours.

DeterminationWhere were you 10 1/2

years ago on Halloween night?

Rousey, Shafir and Duke were teenagers.

Baszler was 23 and at the fairgrounds.

About to make her profes-sional MMA debut.

“I can remember walking into a barn in South Dakota, and this wasn’t even an idea as a career path. This was just something I did that was fun,” the Sioux Falls native recalled. “It wasn’t a dream.

Jessamyn Duke , Ronda Rousey and Shayna Baszler, left to right, shadow box while holding weights at the Glendale Fighting Club in Glendale.

Marina Shafir, left, and Jessamyn Duke work on their wrestling moves.

Ronda Rousey, left, gets a big hug from housemate Jessamyn Duke at their Venice home. MMA >> PAGE 7

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