Top 33 Sonya Deville Quotes

Don’t be afraid. Don’t be ashamed. Don’t ever apologize for your sexuality. Just be you.

I was in my junior year of high school and I had been playing soccer and basketball almost my entire life, and I wanted a change of pace. I wanted to do something more, something different. That’s when I found an MMA gym about 45 minutes from my house and fell in love with the idea of becoming a professional fighter.

I love Daniel Bryan. He’s such a sweetheart.

Even prior to WWE, when I was bartending and training MMA, I always had a sense of fulfillment because although not my dream job, I took pride in being the best bartender I could be.

With any minority group, it takes a strong presence in the public eye to make a change because everything nowadays is social media.

I had so much fun in the ‘Tough Enough’ barracks.

Being a part of the LGBTQ community myself, it’s another passion of mine to let my fan base know that I represent another demographic in the WWE.

I want the women’s division to have that legitimacy, I want it to have that intensity and the aggressiveness, and I feel like that’s where I personally can contribute.

Equality for all is what we should all want, between race, religion, gender, sexuality… it doesn’t matter.

I realized – and I think I learned this at a young age – that anything that’s worth anything, you’re going to take a risk to get there and it’s not going to be easy.

In sports, you deal with disappointment often, but it’s how you handle it and come back from it that shapes you. All these lessons are transferable to life and have really helped me with the adversities I’ve had to deal with in life.

To force something that was not organic to who I am was tough on me, and so I can relate to all those girls and guys out there going through the same thing.

Sonya Deville was originally supposed to be NJ Deville to help me keep my MMA nickname of ‘The Jersey Devil’ after debating back and forth we agreed on Sonya Deville.

I think back to when I was in high school, to 17-year old Daria, who was dating guys and thought that that was the only way of life. I was very confused, and it was definitely manifesting itself in other parts of my life that were unhealthy.

From a very early age, I realized why I was put on this planet: to fight.

I think the ability and the knowledge to be able to defend yourself builds confidence. Also there’s great gratification in the sweat and work you get from any combat training.

As much as we don’t like to admit it sometimes, we are the influencers.

My goal in talking about my sexuality publicly is just so that a scared little girl or little boy can see me do it and think, ‘wow, if she did it, then maybe it’s OK that I do it.’ It’s to encourage people to be themselves.

I was afraid of Sonya being defined by her sexuality because that’s not fair to her. I don’t want Sonya to be defined by who she loves.

I do feel pressure, but I put it on myself because I want to represent the LGBTQ community in a place where they’ve never really been represented that much, being the WWE and professional wrestling in general.

I’m a very passionate person. I’m Italian, it’s in my blood so when I care about something, I get emotional.

The Women’s Evolution was just starting as I was getting into ‘Tough Enough.’ I’ve always had great role models coming in and watching the Becky Lynches and the Charlottes, the Bayleys, the Sashas move that movement and then being able to be part of it.

You can be happy with work, you can be happy in other facets of life, but if you’re not happy in your personal life, and you’re not loving open and honestly, it sucks.

When I was 14 years old, I said, ‘Mom, I want to fight MMA.’

I’ve always been athletic my entire life and loved sports.

Everyone has contributed to the Women’s Evolution in their own way, and I hope that my message can just be it’s okay to not look like the rest, it’s okay to not fit in, it’s okay to be yourself and be different.

I really want to utilize my MMA knowledge in my WWE performance.

I am an entertainer and I am an athlete, and WWE is the biggest performance-based show in the world.

My friend’s mom said to me, ‘honey, I think you’re gay.’ And I go, ‘yeah, I am.’ As soon as someone vocalized it to me, gave me permission. I was like, ‘yes, yes, yeah!’

I feel like the story me and Ronda can tell one day will be so awesome, and I think we have something special here. I think that it’s going to be an honor and a privilege to work in the ring with her. That’s the biggest compliment, is that Ronda Rousey – she’s done a lot in her life. She’s accomplished a lot.

Acting is my love.

I just think I’m very honest and I say how I feel. Some people like that about me. Some people hate that about me.

I love being able to share my story to help others relate or cope with their own stuff they have going on at home.