One woman is credited for bringing women’s mixed martial arts to the forefront of the sport, and that’s “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey. Not only was she the first female to grip a UFC championship, but she transcended the promotion as a global superstar.
From acting in blockbuster movies to becoming a WWE mainstay, Rousey’s carved a path inside the entertainment world and outside of the Octagon. But, why did the 37-year-old walk away from MMA for good, and what was her professional record? Let’s take a quick dive into Rowdy’s fisticuff career.
Before becoming a cage fighter, Rousey found immense success as a judoka. She secured medals in several high-profile tournaments in the mid-2000s, including gold at the 2004 Pan American Judo Championships and the 2004 World Judo Juniors Championships. Her judo prowess led her to represent the United States in the Olympics twice. She first competed at the Athens games in 2004. But, it was in Beijing in 2008 when she podiumed and took home bronze.
Rousey’s judo base was her superpower in MMA, and that became clear early on. After rattling off a few amateur wins, she made her professional debut in 2011. Although Rowdy became an MMA legend by trouncing the women’s bantamweight division (135 pounds), she began her pro run as a featherweight (145 pounds).
She met Ediane Gomes at King of the Cage’s “Turning Point” event in 2011, and Rousey only needed 25 seconds to secure an armbar victory. As combat sports historians would note, the way she began her professional career was unheard of. Including her dismantling of Gomes, Rowdy snatched seven armbar wins in a row.
Heading into her fifth bout, Rousey had two triumphs in Strikeforce — one of the most notable promotions at the time — as a 145-pounder. And as a 4-0 athlete with less than a year into her pro career, she received her first shot at gold. But, it was at one weight class lower. Before the opening round ended, Rousey dethroned then-bantamweight queen Meisha Tate in March 2012.
By this time, Rousey’s popularity inside the MMA bubble was skyrocketing. Not only did her in-cage domination speak to fans, she was the full package — good on the mic, easy on the eyes, and radiated charisma. And after she dispatched Sarah Kaufman a few months later, the UFC absorbed Strikeforce’s roster and Rousey signed with the world-leading organization.
Before then, the UFC didn’t have a women’s division and UFC CEO Dana White was famously against bringing female fighters into the Octagon. For those unfamiliar with the workings of the UFC, White — whose title recently changed from president to CEO — has been the organization’s frontman shot-caller for decades. Typically, what he says goes.
But, Rousey changed everything.
“I’m trying this whole women’s thing out,” White said in a media scrum at the time. “Obviously, Ronda’s the champ. I think that Ronda has the potential to be a big star. She’s already getting media that we’ve never even got before, and she’s never even set foot in the UFC yet.”
The promotion introduced the women’s 135-pound division, and Rousey was promoted from Strikeforce champion to UFC queen before she fought. UFC 157 in February 2013 marked Rowdy’s first title defense. She headlined the pay-per-view opposite Liz Carmouche and as advertised, Rousey made short work of “Girl-Rilla.”
It was off the races for Rousey and her career, and White never looked back with women battling in the black cage.
From 2013 to 2015, Rowdy notched six 135-pound title defenses — all by finish. She took out Tate two more times and defeated the likes of Sara McMann and Cat Zingano. There’s only been a few fighters to build enough stardom to open up lucrative opportunities outside of the UFC, and one of them is Rousey. She became more of a household name after every victory.
Whether it was being featured on big-time talk shows, or starring in high-budget movies like The Expendables 3 or Furious 7, Rousey became a bonafide international star.
But, unfortunately for Rowdy, her MMA career came crashing down in the mid-2010s. Her seventh defense was against Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015. At the time, Rousey seemed unbeatable to many, and there were fan-fiction talks about her chances against professional male combatants, like boxer Floyd Mayweather Jr. But, Holm, a respected boxer herself, ended Rousey’s historic run as the UFC’s inaugural bantamweight champion.
Holm head-kicked an overmatched Rousey in the second round after battering her for most of the match. The show closed with an unconscious Rousey on the canvas, and Holm became the weight class’ new ruler.
The result shocked the sports world, to say the least. It still stands as one of the biggest upsets of all time, and the last time Rowdy held a UFC belt. In fact, she only fought one more time, and it was another bad day at the office. She returned in December 2016 to challenge Amanda Nunes, who had taken the title for herself. But, UFC 207’s main event lasted less than a minute. “The Lioness” punished Rousey with strikes and the fight was waved off.
Fast forward around eight years and Rousey’s remained firmly retired from fighting. All in all, she has a professional MMA record of 12-2, with nine wins via submission and three by KO/TKO.
Why did Rousey retire from mixed martial arts?
Rousey has been mostly removed from the MMA world since the Nunes loss. She’s rarely done interviews about her UFC tenure and had seemingly washed her hands of the fight world. She infamously stayed clear of the media after her defeat to Holm, and more so after Nunes.
But, she made headlines in March after revealing why she ultimately retired from the MMA. Her chat came ahead of the release of her memoir, Our Fight, and she said a history of concussions beginning from her time as a judoka helped usher her into retirement.
“I’d like people to understand my reasons and motivations behind things,” Rousey said (h/t ESPN). “I was forced to leave fighting when I was faster, stronger, more skilled, and had a better understanding of the art than ever before. It was a really hard decision to understand, one that my body made for me.”
Rousey said she didn’t bring up the head trauma while she was competing as she wanted to do just that — compete. She alluded to diving deep into her retirement in the memoir but gave a snippet of her mindset after the knockout to Holm.
“I think there was just so much to [that loss] that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of an interview or article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it,” Rousey said. “So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA. I couldn’t talk about it at all when I was doing MMA because it would literally put a target on my head and I might not have been allowed to compete any farther.”
Her memoir releases on April 2, and it sounds like much more will come out about Rousey’s combat sports career — things she’s kept private for decades.
Regardless, Rousey has kept herself busy outside of fighting. She married ex-UFC heavyweight Travis Browne in 2017 and they had a little girl in 2021. She lived a career as a WWE superstar and has been featured in many more on-screen works. Her book release will likely do well, too.
Rousey changed women’s mixed martial arts as a pivotal pioneer, and her career will forever be etched in the UFC’s Hall of Fame.
