Ronda Rousey
Olympic Result: Bronze, 2008
Ronda Rousey’s Olympic pedigree was a huge selling point upon her arrival in the UFC in 2013. The woman who broke the gender barrier in the promotion, forcing Dana White to reverse course on his infamous proclamation that women would “never” fight for his company, had earned a bronze medal in judo at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Masae Ueno of Japan took gold in the middleweight division (70kg) that year, with Cuba’s Anaysi Hernández earning silver.
Rousey, a contemporary of Kayla Harrison, became the first U.S. woman to medal in Judo at the Olympics since the sports’ addition in 1992. She went on to compete for Scott Coker’s Strikeforce, winning the women’s bantamweight title in that promotion with an arm-bar submission of Miesha Tate in 2012. When the UFC absorbed Strikeforce, Rousey convinced White to give her a shot in the company, and saw her belt carry over with her, becoming the inaugural UFC women’s bantamweight champion as a result. Rousey defended that title against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157, the first-ever women’s fight in UFC history. She would defended her title five more times before losing it to Holly Holm, and left the sport off a subsequent loss to Amanda Nunes, moving on to acting and the WWE, from which she has also retired.
Rousey was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.
