Ronda Jean RouseyΒ (/ΛraΚzi/Β ROW-zee; born February 1, 1987) is an AmericanΒ professional wrestler, actress, and formerΒ judokaΒ andΒ mixed martial artist. She is best known for her tenures in theΒ Ultimate Fighting ChampionshipΒ (UFC) andΒ WWE.
She was the first American woman to win anΒ Olympic medal in judoΒ by winning bronze at theΒ 2008 Summer Olympics.Β Lynn RoethkeΒ had previously won a silver medal in the 1988 Olympics. However, her medal was not counted toward the US medal count because Women's Judo was a demonstration sport. Rousey began her mixed martial arts (MMA) career withΒ King of the CageΒ in 2011. She soon joinedΒ Strikeforce, becoming their lastΒ Women's Bantamweight Champion, holding the championship until the UFC acquired Strikeforce. Rousey was part of the UFC's first female fight atΒ UFC 157, was their inauguralΒ Women's Bantamweight Champion, and held the record for most UFC title defences (6) by a female until being surpassed byΒ Valentina ShevchenkoΒ in 2022. Rousey retired from MMA in 2016 and was the first female fighter inducted into theΒ UFC Hall of FameΒ in 2018.
Rousey began a career inΒ professional wrestlingΒ in 2018, signing with WWE,Β and debuted atΒ WrestleMania 34. She won theΒ Raw Women's ChampionshipΒ at that year'sΒ SummerSlam. She headlined WWE's first and only all women's pay-per-viewΒ Evolution, in which she defended the title. Rousey lost the title in the first women'sΒ WrestleManiaΒ main event atΒ WrestleMania 35. Rousey returned at theΒ 2022 Royal Rumble, winning the women'sΒ Royal Rumble match. That year, she would win theΒ SmackDown Women's Championship twice, making her an overall three-time women's world champion in WWE. She became theΒ eighth Women's Triple Crown ChampionΒ when she won theΒ WWE Women's Tag Team ChampionshipΒ withΒ Shayna Baszler. Rousey and Baszler also unified the WWE andΒ NXT Women's Tag Team Championships. After leaving WWE in October 2023, she began wrestling on theΒ independent circuit.
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.Β She was voted the best female athlete of all time in a 2015 ESPN fan poll, andΒ Fox SportsΒ described her as "one of the defining athletes of the 21st century." Rousey has also appeared in films, includingΒ The Expendables 3Β (2014), Furious 7Β (2015),Β andΒ Mile 22Β (2018), and published herΒ autobiography,Β My Fight / Your Fight, in 2015.
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