Ronda Jean Rousey (born February 1, 1987) is a professional wrestler and former mixed martial artist. She is considered to be one of the greatest female athletes ever as the only woman to win both a UFC and WWE championship. She is also the only woman to headline a pay-per-view event.
After becoming the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo by winning bronze at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Rousey began pursuing a career in mixed martial arts (MMA). She won her MMA debut for King of the Cage before going to Strikeforce, where she became the last-ever Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion before the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) bought Strikeforce in 2011. She was their inaugural female champion when she was named UFC Women's Bantamweight Champion. Rousey took part in the first women's fight in UFC history when she successfully defended her title against Liz Carmouche at UFC 157. After setting the record for most UFC title defenses by a woman (6), Rousey had her first professional loss in MMA when she lost her title to Holly Holm. In 2018, she became the first female fighter to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.
In 2018, Rousey began a career in professional wrestling, signing a contract with WWE. She debuted at WrestleMania 34, and later won the Raw Women's Championship, her first WWE and professional wrestling title, at SummerSlam. She then headlined the inaugural WWE all-women's pay-per-view event when she successfully defended her title against Nikki Bella at WWE Evolution. Rousey had her first WWE loss when she lost her title in the first-ever women's WrestleMania main-event to Becky Lynch in a triple threat match at WrestleMania 35; this left her reign as Raw Women's Champion as the second-longest in the title's history at 231 days.
She has also enjoyed success as an actress and author, appearing in the films The Expendables 3 (2014), Furious 7 (2015), and Mile 22 (2018), and releasing her autobiography My Fight / Your Fight in 2015.
Rousey is the only woman to win a championship in both the UFC and WWE. Rousey was voted the best female athlete of all-time in a 2015 ESPN fan poll, and Fox Sports described her as "one of the defining athletes of the 21st century.