No one can deny the impact on women’s mixed marital arts that Ronda Rousey had. The inaugural UFC women’s bantamweight champion famously changed UFC CEO Dana White’s mind about women competing in the sport’s biggest promotion paving the way for those that followed.
She was a dominant champion who defended her title six consecutive times. That record stood for seven years before Valentina Shevchenko surpassed it with seven in 2022. Rousey gained mainstream celebrity status and remains one of the sports biggest stars having not fought in nine years.
In a recent interview, “Rowdy” referred to herself as ‘the greatest ever,’ and she’s doubled down on the claim.
“I said the other day that I’m the greatest ever, and man everyone flipped the f**k out over it,” Rousey said during an appearance on Bertcast. “I’m like, how do you define the greatest ever?
“I define the greatest ever as the person who was the most dominant and the farthest ahead of their time, right, because you can’t judge different eras against each other. You can’t judge LeBron [James] against Michael Jordan. Michael Jordan is the greatest ever I’d say because of the effect that he had on culture, of how far ahead of his time he was, and how dominant he was,” continued Rousey.
“And no one can say that I haven’t been the most dominant and the most ahead of my time and I’ll die on that hill. But a bunch of people that have never been in a fight in their lives will devote a good portion of their day arguing otherwise.”
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Rousey gained prominence in Judo, winning international competitions at the age 14. She won the Bronze Medal at the 2008 Summer Olympics becoming the first American female to win an Olympic Medal in Judo. In 2010, she transitioned to mixed martial arts and became a household name. She rose to superstardom in the UFC and later became the female face of WWE.
She was the first female champion in UFC history. She holds the record for the longest title fight finish streak in the fight promotion’s history with six, including the second fastest finish in UFC title fight history. She was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.
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