News On This Day: Ronda Rousey Puts Women's MMA In The UFC Spotlight

On this day in 2013, Rousey made her historic UFC debut and kickstarted what would be a women’s revolution of sorts, not just in the UFC, but in the MMA world.

https://www.ibtimes.com/day-ronda-rousey-puts-womens-mma-ufc-spotlight-3150316







KEY POINTS

• Ronda Rousey was one of the biggest UFC stars in the early to mid-2010s
• Rousey became the UFC's first female champion
• She paved the way for today's female stars such as Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko

There was a time in history when the thought of women competing inside the UFC Octagon was scoffed at.

UFC President Dana White himself even dismissed the idea of having female athletes fight in the promotion.

Thankfully, those days are long gone, and today, some of the biggest stars in the mixed martial arts (MMA) world are, in fact, women.


As female fighters continue to succeed and make a name for themselves in the MMA world, one woman has been credited for kicking down the door and paving the way for female fighters to be seen as legitimate stars in the sport.

That woman is none other than former UFC women's bantamweight champion “Rowdy” Ronda Rousey.







Rousey was inducted to the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018, again making history as the first female inductee.

#LegendBless

 

Once ever 8 year anniversary.

 

I miss Ronda... She rustled a mean jimmy.

 

SF/UFC newb Ronda was actually attractive

 

Ronda was an overhyped mess at times, but she's still a legend and a pioneer. People can hate her all she want but she is a GOAT in her own right, the same way the early MMA guys like royce were.

 

I still think she'd destroy almost every woman MMA fighter outside of Nunes, Holm, and maybe Cyborg. The last one lost a ton of sheen too in her UFC run.

The only reason Holm is mentioned too is because his strength counters the one dimensional grappling dominance Rousey presents, (she's potentially on something like Cyborg obviously was too imo explaining it). So I'd go further and say Rousey is still very good unlike Royce coming back to fight Hughes or even his prime form put into any era.

I guess it shows the women's game still has a long way to go with technique, s&c, and athletic pool because I do think Rousey would be the 2nd-3rd best fighter at 135 and 145 still.

 

It was a historic moment but what I'll always remember the most is the weeks of incessant bitching about Machida/Hendo getting "snubbed" turning into silence as the fight turned out to be a real snoozer.

 

I hope we get another women's phenom in wmma soon. The ride was great. I like ronda's time in mma even though people hated it.

 

Cyborg beats Ronda. Don't let a firefight that ended in under a minute sway you that much. Valentina would beat her as well.

 

Beating Ronda takes a unique mix of skills and physical attributes that very few women have. You need good athleticism combined with good footwork, striking, and grappling defence skills, and that gets you down to maybe 3-4 women. You get Holm, Nunes, Valentina, and maybe Cyborg depending on how stupid she fights when she gets hit. Cyborg has a habit of jamming her own punches so she's not going to be as effective as Holm when Ronda bullrushes her; Holly's habit of air punching matched up perfectly against Ronda since charging in wildly against Holm puts her right in the power band of the punches.

 

It's crazy that she headlined a card on her first debut on the UFC and sold for like 400k buys. Dana took a gamble and hit a jackpot. her PPV with Betche even outsold Conor vs. Mendes.

 

Hespect Honda Housey no hustle himmies

 

One of the only times I can recall SherDog came together and cheered when Holly kicked her to the moon.

 

Fun era. I got a bunch of people I know into mma because of her. It helped a lot that even their wives and girlfriends came along for the ride because her.

 

Let’s all celebrate this milestone in equality that has allowed hundreds of women pursue their dreams of becoming combat athletes on the biggest stage in the industry.

 

All downhill from there

 

I used to enjoy the weigh-ins when they were allowed to wear their own bra and panties.


Fuck Reebok.

 

Why would they keep women fighting in the UFC, if there was no demand?

 

Not sure if this is sarcastic or genuine, but yes it was a nice milestone.

 

Jesus man look at the arms on Urijah Faber and I thought Ronda was jacked.