118 Facts About Ronda Rousey

Ronda Jean Rousey is an American professional wrestler, actress, and former judoka and mixed martial artist.

Ronda Rousey is best known for her tenures in the Ultimate Fighting Championship and WWE.

Ronda Rousey was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in judo by winning bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Ronda Rousey soon joined Strikeforce, becoming their last Women's Bantamweight Champion, holding the championship until Strikeforce was acquired by the UFC.

Ronda Rousey was part of the UFC's first female fight at UFC 157, was their inaugural Women's Bantamweight Champion, and held the record for most UFC title defenses by a female, until being surpassed by Valentina Shevchenko in 2022.

Ronda Rousey retired from MMA in 2016 and was the first female fighter inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.

Ronda Rousey began a career in professional wrestling in 2018, signing with WWE, and debuted at WrestleMania 34.

Ronda Rousey won the Raw Women's Championship at that year's SummerSlam, and headlined WWE's first and only all-women's pay-per-view Evolution, in which she defended the title.

Ronda Rousey lost the title in the first women's WrestleMania main event at WrestleMania 35.

Ronda Rousey returned at the 2022 Royal Rumble, winning the women's Royal Rumble match.

Ronda Rousey became the eighth Women's Triple Crown Champion when she won the WWE Women's Tag Team Championship with Shayna Baszler.

Ronda Rousey is the only woman to become a champion in both the UFC and WWE as well as the only woman to headline a pay-per-view event in both companies.

Ronda Jean Rousey was born in Riverside, California on February 1,1987, the youngest of three daughters of AnnMaria De Mars and Ronald John Rousey, after whom she was named.

Ronda Rousey is of English, Polish, Venezuelan, Trinidadian, and Canadian ancestry.

When Ronda Rousey was eight years old, her biological father, who had broken his back while sledding with his kids, died by suicide.

When Ronda Rousey was three years old, her mother and father moved from Riverside, California, to Jamestown, North Dakota, to obtain intensive speech therapy with specialists at Minot State University.

Ronda Rousey dropped out of high school and later earned her GED.

Ronda Rousey was raised between Jamestown and Southern California, retiring from her judo career at 21 and starting her MMA career at 22 when she realized that she did not want to spend her life in a conventional field of work.

Ronda Rousey began judo with her mother at the age of 11.

Ronda Rousey trained with her mother until she was 13, when she accidentally broke her mother's wrist.

At 17, Ronda Rousey was the youngest judoka to qualify for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens.

Also that year, Ronda Rousey won a gold medal at the 2004 World Judo Juniors Championships in Budapest, Hungary.

Ronda Rousey won the gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games and the silver medal at the 2007 World Judo Championships.

Ronda Rousey lost her quarterfinal to the Dutch ex-world champion Edith Bosch but qualified for a bronze medal match through the repechage bracket.

Ronda Rousey defeated Annett Boehm by Yuko to win a bronze medal.

Ronda Rousey ultimately compiled a competition judo record of 56 wins and 19 losses.

When Ronda Rousey started learning judo, her mother took her to judo clubs run by her old teammates.

Ronda Rousey went to North Hollywood, Los Angeles Hayastan MMA Academy, which was run by Gokor Chivichyan, where she trained with fellow future MMA fighters Manny Gamburyan and Karo Parisyan.

Back in 2004, her teammates thought Ronda Rousey "would kill these girls" in MMA, but thought she was "too pretty to get hit in the face" and should keep doing judo.

Ronda Rousey stated she never got as excited watching judo or any other sport.

Ronda Rousey trained at the Glendale Glendale Fighting Club, to which she was introduced by Gamburyan and other Hayastan teammates.

Ronda Rousey started training under her long-term MMA coach Edmond Tarverdyan at Glendale Fighting Club.

In wrestling, Ronda Rousey trained under the Romanian American Leo Frincu.

Ronda Rousey made her mixed martial arts debut as an amateur on August 6,2010.

Ronda Rousey defeated Hayden Munoz by submission due to an armbar in 23 seconds.

Ronda Rousey faced Taylor Stratford in the Tuff-N-Uff tournament semi-finals on January 7,2011, and won by technical submission due to an armbar in 24 seconds.

Ronda Rousey then announced plans to turn pro and was replaced in the tournament.

Ronda Rousey made her professional mixed martial arts debut on March 27,2011, at King of the Cage: Turning Point.

Ronda Rousey submitted Ediane Gomes with an armbar in 25 seconds.

Ronda Rousey faced kickboxing champion Charmaine Tweet in an MMA bout at Hard Knocks Fighting Championship: School of Hard Knocks 12 on June 17,2011, in Calgary, Canada.

Ronda Rousey submitted Tweet with an armbar in 49 seconds.

Ronda Rousey was scheduled to make her Strikeforce debut against Sarah D'Alelio on July 30,2011, at Strikeforce: Fedor vs Henderson in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

Ronda Rousey defeated D'Alelio by technical submission due to an armbar early in the first round.

Ronda Rousey faced Julia Budd at Strikeforce Challengers 20 on November 18,2011, in Las Vegas.

Ronda Rousey won via submission due to an armbar in the first round, dislocating Budd's elbow in the process.

Ronda Rousey challenged Tate for her Strikeforce title on March 3,2012, in Columbus, Ohio.

Ronda Rousey defeated Tate by submission due to an armbar in the first round, again dislocating her opponent's elbow, to become the new Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion.

Ronda Rousey defended her strikeforce title against Sarah Kaufman at Strikeforce: Ronda Rousey vs Kaufman on August 18,2012, in San Diego, California.

Ronda Rousey said that she would throw Kaufman's arm at her corner after ripping it off with an armbar, and threatened to choke or pound Kaufman's face to death.

In November 2012, the Ultimate Fighting Championship announced that Ronda Rousey had become the first female fighter to sign with the UFC.

UFC President Dana White officially announced at the UFC on Fox: Henderson vs Diaz pre-fight press conference that Ronda Rousey was the first UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion.

Ronda Rousey originally opposed using the nickname her friends gave her, "Rowdy", feeling it would be disrespectful to professional wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.

Ronda Rousey defended her title against Liz Carmouche on February 23,2013, at UFC 157.

Ronda Rousey faced Miesha Tate, in a rematch from Strikeforce, at UFC 168 on December 28,2013.

Ronda Rousey defended her UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship against fellow Olympic medalist and undefeated fighter Sara McMann in the main event at UFC 170 on February 22,2014.

Ronda Rousey won the fight by TKO after knocking down McMann with a knee to the body just over a minute into the first round.

In 2014, Ronda Rousey was named one of espnW's Impact 25.

Ronda Rousey defended the UFC Women's Bantamweight Championship against Alexis Davis in the co-main event at UFC 175 on July 5,2014.

Ronda Rousey won the fight via knockout 16 seconds into the first round.

Ronda Rousey defeated Zingano with an armbar in 14 seconds, the shortest title match in the history of UFC until Conor McGregor defeated Jose Aldo in 13 seconds 11 months later.

Ronda Rousey fought Bethe Correia on August 1,2015, in Brazil, at UFC 190, winning the bout by knockout 34 seconds into the first round.

Ronda Rousey dedicated the match to "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, who died the day before, commenting that Piper was one of her inspirations and had endorsed her use of his nickname.

Ronda Rousey spent 1077 seconds in the octagon to attain all six and accumulated $1,080,000 in prize money; this equated to nearly $1002.79 for every second spent fighting.

Ronda Rousey was medically suspended by UFC on November 18,2015.

Ronda Rousey is right-handed, but is a left-handed judoka fighting in an orthodox stance as a striker.

Ronda Rousey is well known for her skill in grappling and is particularly noted for her string of victories by armbar.

Against accomplished strikers, such as Julia Budd and Sarah Kaufman, Ronda Rousey has typically brought the fight down and sought a quick submission.

Ronda Rousey became a more proficient striker following her UFC debut, leading to her first wins by way of stoppage.

Ronda Rousey seldom stood side on with a set boxing stance, but would square up to the opponent, while still generating strong striking power, especially when near the fence, or clinching opponents with the left hand to close the distance.

Ronda Rousey is notable for introducing trash talking to women's MMA.

In many interviews Ronda Rousey has used harsh language and openly downplayed the abilities of her opponents, which she explains as a way to generate more publicity for the sport.

Ronda Rousey taunted him, saying he would not hit a woman.

Ronda Rousey left, paused and walked over to Rousey to a loud ovation.

Ronda Rousey then helped her into the ring and said that she would be happy to hit McMahon for him.

McMahon tried to slap her, was blocked and Ronda Rousey grabbed her arm, teasing an armbar, before throwing her out of the ring.

Ronda Rousey trained under Brian Kendrick at his wrestling school.

Ronda Rousey made a surprise appearance at the Royal Rumble on January 28,2018, confronting Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss, SmackDown Women's Champion Charlotte Flair, and Asuka, who had just won the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match.

The jacket which Ronda Rousey wore during this appearance belonged to "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, given to her by his son.

Ronda Rousey was supposed to face Becky Lynch at the Survivor Series pay-per-view in an interbrand champion vs champion match, but Lynch was legitimately injured during an invasion angle just minutes after she attacked Ronda Rousey backstage.

Shortly after she retained her title against Bayley on the January 28,2019, episode of Raw, Ronda Rousey continued her feud with Becky Lynch after the latter chose to challenge her in a title match at WrestleMania 35.

Ronda Rousey attacked Lynch during the match, giving Lynch the disqualification victory and thus a WrestleMania triple threat match between Ronda Rousey, Flair, and Lynch was made official.

The commentary and production team commented that Ronda Rousey was in the ring saying her shoulders were not down for the full three-count and showed a replay of the ending pin-pointing this fact.

Ronda Rousey won by last eliminating Charlotte Flair, thus earning a championship match at WrestleMania 38.

Ronda Rousey then challenged Morgan for the title at SummerSlam 2022.

Ronda Rousey ended up losing the title to Flair in under a minute, ending her second reign at 83 days.

Ronda Rousey lost to Baszler at SummerSlam in an MMA Rules match by technical submission, a match that was panned by fans.

Ronda Rousey pointed that she retired due the amount of concussions she had during her time as an MMA fighter.

On October 26,2023, Ronda Rousey came out of retirement, teaming with Marina Shafir to defeat her trainer Brian Kendrick and Taya Valkyrie at a Lucha VaVoom event.

In January 2022, Ronda Rousey was among the top 20 richest MMA fighters with US$12 million net worth.

Ronda Rousey appeared nude on the cover of ESPN The Magazines 2012 Body Issue and in a pictorial therein.

In May 2013, Ronda Rousey was ranked 29 on the Maxim Hot 100.

Ronda Rousey appeared on the cover and in a pictorial of the September 2013 issue.

In 2015, Ronda Rousey became the first woman featured on the cover of Australian Men's Fitness, appearing on their November edition.

Ronda Rousey was on the cover of the January 2016 issue for The Ring magazine.

Ronda Rousey became the first mixed martial artist to ever appear on the cover of the boxing magazine and the second woman as well, after Cathy Davis in 1978.

Ronda Rousey co-starred in The Expendables 3, marking her first role in a major motion picture.

In October 2015, Ronda Rousey became the first female athlete to guest host ESPN's SportsCenter.

Ronda Rousey hosted the January 23,2016, episode of the late-night variety show Saturday Night Live, with musical guest Selena Gomez.

Ronda Rousey appeared in the Season 2, Episode 20 episode of Blindspot playing the role of Devon Penberthy, a prison inmate serving time for transporting weapons across state lines.

Ronda Rousey was scheduled to star in a remake of the 1989 Patrick Swayze action drama Road House.

Ronda Rousey was rushed to the hospital, where her middle finger was mended with a metal plate and screws.

On July 9,2018, Ronda Rousey was confirmed as one of the two pre-order bonus characters for the video game WWE 2K19.

Ronda Rousey previously appeared in EA Sports UFC, EA Sports UFC 2 and EA Sports UFC 3.

Ronda Rousey later appeared in WWE 2K20, WWE 2K Battlegrounds, WWE 2K22 as a downloadable character, WWE 2K23 and WWE 2K24.

On January 17,2019, it was confirmed that Ronda Rousey would be voicing Sonya Blade in the video game Mortal Kombat 11.

On February 18,2020, Ronda Rousey announced her first stream on Facebook Gaming and donated all stream profits to charity.

On November 30,2022, Ronda Rousey was added as a playable character to the game Raid: Shadow Legends.

Ronda Rousey has discussed how she struggled with her body image in the past.

In January 2013, Ronda Rousey posted a video to her Twitter page advocating a conspiracy theory surrounding the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, which had occurred the month prior, stating in her caption that the video was "extremely interesting" and a "must-watch".

In 2015, Ronda Rousey raised money by auctioning signed T-shirts for the Black Jaguar-White Tiger Foundation.

Ronda Rousey endorsed Bernie Sanders' presidential campaign in the 2016 United States presidential election.

Browne confirmed he and Ronda Rousey were together in October 2015.

The next day, Ronda Rousey revealed that she was dating Browne.

On September 27,2021, Ronda Rousey gave birth to a girl named La'akea Makalapuaokalanipo Browne.

On July 25,2024, Ronda Rousey announced that she is expecting her second child with Browne.

On January 9,2025, Ronda Rousey gave birth to second child, a girl named Liko'ula Pa'uomahinakaipiha Browne.

Ronda Rousey went to her car and he followed, grabbing the steering wheel, so she "dragged him out onto the sidewalk, and left him writhing there".

Ronda Rousey faced criticism from some who thought she had committed domestic abuse.