Ronda Rousey, the UFC star who conquered Dana White and eclipsed McGregor himself.

Ronda Jean Rousey (United States, 1987) grew up unhappy. Life dealt her many hardships before she became a money-making machine dishing out punches as a mixed martial arts fighter. She was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, which led to a speech disorder called apraxia that prevented her from forming intelligible sentences. This lack of communication isolated her from her friends at school until she became a troubled young woman unable to relate to anyone. Her social integration wasn't helped much by the fact that her father committed suicide when she was barely eight years old. He had been paralyzed after a sledding accident and realized that life wasn't worth living like this .

Over time, Rousey became the woman who could earn the most dollars in a pay-per-view television event and even ESPN consecrated her as the greatest female athlete of all time. She has been an actress and has written her autobiography , so there is little left for her to do in life at 38 years old except spend the more than 17 million euros she has earned throughout her sporting career. Concussions precipitated her retirement. Dana White , head of the UFC, pointed to her as "the best athlete" he has worked with, placing her above Connor McGregor .

As the youngest of three sisters, and with such difficulties making friends, Rousey was always the apple of her eye to her mother , AnnMaria De Mars, a doctor in educational psychology who had been a world judo champion three years before giving birth to Ronda. She began training with her at age 11 until, accidentally, she broke her mother's wrist and had to find another coach. She must have been doing quite well because at 17 she went to the Athens Olympics (2004) . She was the youngest American judoka to qualify for an Olympic event. She didn't make it past the first round. Perhaps that was when she began to forge her legend as a fighter. Her revenge came four years later in Beijing. However, a bronze medal wasn't enough reason to continue with judo. She was already thinking about getting into the octagon to throw down punches and kicks. He'd already mastered the immobilization and chokeholds, so he wasn't starting from scratch. Fame was about to knock on his door.

Before deciding to pursue martial arts, she worked as a waitress. She didn't earn enough to live comfortably, and serving behind a bar wasn't her true calling, either. This led her to sort of wipe the slate clean at the age of 23. She turned the page and began her successful amateur career in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) thanks to the help of her coach, Edmond Tarverdya . Her first opponent, whom she defeated by submission, only lasted 23 seconds. The former judoka was growing as a fighter and making a name for herself. No one could stand up to her. It didn't take her half a year to turn professional, and even then she couldn't find a woman who could last more than a minute in the octagon. Not even the challenge of knocking out Canadian world featherweight champion Julia Budd wasn't a great challenge. In less than 50 seconds, she dislocated her elbow, and the referee had no choice but to stop the fight.

Her next step was to lose weight to face off against world bantamweight champion Miesha Tate , who became her next victim. Rousey's face was already becoming familiar to Americans. She was a regular on television interviews or in fights. She dominated Showtime like no one else. To face Sarah Kaufman , another bantamweight champion, she tried to warm up the fight by threatening to rip the Canadian's arm off. Not content with her bravado, she also warned her that she was going to beat the Canadian's face to death. Her opponent only lasted 56 seconds after using her favorite attack weapon: a judo technique called juji gatame . Already grown, Rousey challenged the reigning world featherweight champion Cris Cybor to a fight. Of course, on the condition that it be in the bantamweight division.

With punches, kicks, and immobilizations, Ronda Rousey was dominating the headlines. All she needed was official recognition, which she achieved with the American martial arts company Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) , which until then had been a closed preserve for women. She was their first bantamweight champion, the same as in another private company called Strikeforce . Once she reached the pinnacle of success, the hardest part was to stay there. Her first opponent was Liz Carmouche , who dislocated the champion's jaw with a slap. Rousey didn't give up, and in less than five minutes she managed to pin her to the ground. She had won, but in the eyes of the fans, she already looked more vulnerable .

Between fights she had time to make cameos in films and even made the cover of men's magazines such as Maxime . She appeared in the seventh film in the Fast & Furious saga (2015) in which she exchanged blows with actress Michelle Rodriguez , both dressed in sumptuous evening gowns. The fight ended in a draw after she fell from the top of a ladder and crashed into a table. Witnesses to that brawl were the two main actors such as Vin Diesel and Dwayne Johnson , whose film careers have always been linked to martial arts, and the Spanish actress Elsa Pataky . A year earlier she had been part of the all-star cast that took part in The Expendables 3 such as Harrison Ford, Sylvester Stallone, Mel Gibson and Antonio Banderas . Her last appearance was also in 2015 with Doug Ellin's film entitled Entourage in which she played herself. She was also close to being cast as the female lead in the sequel to The Hard Work , alongside Patrick Swayze . The actor's sudden death in 2009 prevented that from happening.

The American fighter wanted to embrace it all, even literature. Hence her determination to publish her autobiography in 2015, perhaps a bit hastily, titled My Fight / Your Fight. She was only 28 years old when she co-wrote the book with her sister María. In it, she confessed her speech difficulties, the painful loss of her father, her beginnings in mixed martial arts, and her constant pursuit of excellence that made her a true celebrity . Her self-reported opinion leaves no doubt about her winning streak: "Every time I step into a cage, I'm absolutely certain I'm going to win . Not only am I a better fighter than the other person, not only do I have a stronger desire to win, but I've worked harder than my opponent ever will. That's what sets me apart from the rest."

Another episode she recounted in her memoirs was when she discovered that an ex-boyfriend had taken nude photos of her without her consent. Her response was to beat him so badly that he lay writhing on the floor in pain, and then delete the photos from her computer. However, the fear that he had made a copy served as an excuse to pose nude for ESPN magazine's Body issue.

After three years of barely any opposition, she faced Holly Holm , a kickboxing expert who knocked her out in the second round with a precise kick to the face. She had defended her title six times, averaging three minutes in the Octagon, and her bank account had already reached seven figures. The defeat didn't sit well with her. In fact, she always tried to hide the bruises on her face with whatever was at hand. Years later, she admitted that before that fight, she had fallen down the stairs and suffered a concussion . "I didn't even tell my coach because I knew he wouldn't let me fight, and I wasn't ready to stop," she says.

It took her more than half a year to reappear. She did so on December 30, 2016, against Amanda Nunes , and again she bit the dust in the first round. Her star was beginning to fade, despite earning close to five million euros. In total, she earned 15.5 million euros for eight fights, with a record of six wins and two losses. Those figures were only within her reach. For example, her rival didn't even accumulate half of Rousey's fortune during her ten years in the UFC. This pay gap was due to the fact that women were paid based on the revenue they generated for the company that hired them. Hence the abysmal disproportionate pay compared to men. The American wasn't one to mince her words. She was very clear in her position. Equality? Not at all. In her opinion, audience ratings should be prioritized over equal pay. Her words did not sit well with her colleagues, which caused a strong rift.

She used her temporary retirement from mixed martial arts to rethink her future with her husband, Travis Browne , a Hawaiian fighter with a criminal record for gender violence, and to campaign for the Democratic Party primary candidate, Bernie Sanders , who was ultimately defeated by Hilary Clinton . She also publicly supported other politically charged causes when, for example, in 2015 she visited Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, to pay tribute to the nearly two million people murdered a century earlier by the Ottoman Empire, in what became known as the Armenian genocide.

"He also publicly supported other politically charged causes, for example, when he visited Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, in 2015."

In 2018, she began her wrestling career with World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). She remained undefeated for 231 days until retiring to give birth to her first daughter, La'akea. In 2022, she returned for a few months, only to be sidelined again by motherhood. On January 9, she gave birth to her second child, Liko'ula. Ronda Rousey 's life is now uneventful, away from the media spotlight in Venice , California. Little remains of the teenager whose friends mocked her for the size of her arms, calling her Miss Man.

The concussions she suffered during her sports career forced her to think more about her family than herself . She recounted this in her second memoir, *Our Fight : A Memoir*. The question remains as to whether Ronda Rousey will ever compete again. Fans miss the woman who would drill her opponents with her glare before a fight and then flash a smile when she defeated them. For now, you can follow her on Instagram, where she has more than 17 million followers, and each sponsored post can earn her around €150,000.