Ronda Rousey

About

Ronda Rousey is an American mixed martial artist who is the current UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She is known for quickly winning many of her matches within the first round, often defeating opponents using variations of the armbar submission technique.

History

Fighting Career

At the age of 11, Rousey’s mother began training her in the Judo martial art. When she was 17, Rousey competed in Judo at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. In August 2008, Rousey won a bronze medal at the Olympic Games in Bejing, China, becoming the first American woman to win an Olympic medal in the martial art. On August 6th, 2010, Rousey participated in her first mixed martial arts match against Hayden Munoz, whom she defeated with an armbar submission in 23 seconds (shown below, left). On November 12th, Rousey defeated her opponent Autumn Richardson with an armbar in 57 seconds (shown below, right).

Over the next several years, Rousey won matches against 11 opponents, nine of which were submitted with armbars.^[6] As of March 2015, Rousey remains the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion and is undefeated in her mixed martial arts career.

Ronda Rousey v. Bethe Correia

On August 1st, 2015, Rousey defeated Brazilian MMA fighter Bethe Correia by knockout 34 seconds into the first round at UFC 190 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That day, the UFC on Fox YouTube channel uploaded a highlight of the fight, which gained over 4.8 million views and 1,000 comments in 48 hours.

Meanwhile, posts about the fight reached the front page of the /r/sports^[7] and /r/MMA^[8] subreddits. On August 2nd, Instagram^[10] user azxd uploaded a stop motion video featuring Rousey defeating Correia (shown below). Within 24 hours, the video gathered more than 1,700 likes and 380 comments.

Also on August 2nd, rapper Lil Wayne posted a tweet referring to Rousey as a “beast” (shown below).^[9] Over the next day, the tweet received upwards of 12,000 favorites and 9,300 retweets.

Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm

On November 15th, 2015, Rousey was knocked out for the first time in the second round of a fight with bantamweight Holly Holm. While Rousey had been the favorite going into the fight, Holm and Rousey began having altercations at the weigh-in (below left) and by the first round Rousey had been hit hard in the face, causing a split lip and a bloody nose (below right).

The sporting world was shocked by Rousey’s loss. Sports betting outlets, like MGM Sportsbook in Las Vegas, swallowed a large loss on the fight. Rousey was briefly hospitalized after the fight, leading fans to wonder if it had ended her career, however she quickly reassured them that not only would she be back, but that she would defeat Holm at their next match in early 2016. That didn’t stop many celebrities from having an opinion on her loss, including 50 Cent, Donald Trump, and Lady Gaga.

Online Presence

On March 19th, 2012, YouTuber MrGetthefuckup uploaded a highlight reel featuring various clips of Rousey’s fights (shown below, left). On August 8th, 2012, the Team Coco YouTube channel uploaded an interview with Rousey on the Conan O’Brien talk show (shown below, right). Within three years, the videos garnered more than 2.2 million and 1.9 million views respectively.

On September 2nd, 2014, Redditor therudeboy submitted a screenshot of Rousey’s Pokemon Forums profile from when she was 16-years-old to the /r/MMA^[3] subreddit (shown below, left). On December 23rd, 2014, Redditor HunterAHomistek submitted a photograph of a Rousey fight card titled “So this Ronda Rousey card has an interesting design…” to /r/MMA^[2] (shown below, right). Within two months, the post accumulated upwards of 1,700 votes (93% upvoted).

On February 24th, 2015, YouTuber Aaron Tru uploaded a video in which Rousey hip tosses a male interviewer on the ground, who claims to have suffered “4 busted ribs” in the video description (shown below, left). Within two weeks, the video gained over 2.2 million views and 640 comments. On February 28th, YouTuber ZAA ONEBro uploaded footage of Rousey’s 14-second match in which she defeated opponent Cat Zingano with an armbar submission in 14-seconds (shown below, right).

Social Media Presence

As of March 2015, Rousey has accumulated upwards of 2.7 million Facebook^[1] likes, 1.3 million Instagram^[4] followers and 836,000 Twitter^[5] followers.

Personal Life

Rousey was born on February 1st, 1987 in Riverside County, California. She is a fan of the Pokemon franchise and plays the online role-playing game World of Warcraft.