American professional wrestler, actress and former professional mixed martial artist and
judoka Ronda Jean Rousey was born in Riverside, California on February 1, 1987. Rousey is
currently signed to WWE as a wrestler and has been a trailblazer her entire athletic
career. 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." She is also
the only woman to win a championship in both the UFC and WWE, as well as the only woman
to headline a pay-per-view event in both companies.
Her biological father, Ron Rousey, died by suicide in 1995, when Rousey was eight years old.
Her mother AnnaMaria De Mars, a decorated judoka, was the first American to win a World Judo Championship.
Ronda was the youngest of her siblings: Maria
Burns-Ortiz, Jennifer Rousey and Julia DeMars. As a result of being born with her umbilical
cord wrapped around her neck, Rousey struggled with a speech disorder for the first six years
of her life. She also dropped out of high school and later earned her GED.
She started dating UFC fighter Travis Browne in October 2015. Browne was still legally
married to his estranged wife at the time, Jenny Renee Webb, and was being investigated
for domestic violence. Rousey and Browne got engaged in New Zealand in April 2017 and they
were married in August 2017 in Hawaii.
Rousey began judo with her mother at the age of 11 and switched to a pro trainer at age
13. Rousey was the youngest judo competitor qualified for the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens
at age 17, then went on to become the first American athlete to win two Junior World medals.
She was also the first American to win an Olympic medal in Judo, when she won the Bronze
at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Rousey retired from Judo after her Olympic glory, at age
21. Rousey then 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 Strikeforce Women's Bantamweight Champion before the UFC bought
Strikeforce in 2011. Rousey was their inaugural female champion when she was named UFC Women's
Bantamweight Champion. After setting the record for most UFC title defenses by a woman, 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. Rousey 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.
Rousey 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.
Ronda Rousey net worth remains at a total of $12 million as of the year 2020.
Ronda Rousey was seen sporting a cherry-red, all-new Chevy Corvette Stingray. The C7 Corvette
starts at $55,000, runs on a 6.2-liter V8 that gets 455 hp, and can hit a top speed
of about 185 mph. Before she hit the big time in MMA, Rousey
drove a 2005 Honda Accord LX. In 2015, Rousey put her beloved car up for sale on an auction
site, with the lucky bidder paying $21,000 for a car still full of Rousey’s MMA memorabilia
and personal possessions.
Due to the fact that Ronda Rousey began her fighting career very early in her life, you
may assume that she has never had a “normal” job. However, she told UFC that long before
she began making the big bucks she worked as a bartender, cocktail waitress, canine
physical therapy assistant, and was an employee at 24 Hour Fitness.
Rousey is an avid fan of Dragon Ball Z and Pokémon. Her favorite Pokémon is Mew and
she had a childhood crush on Vegeta. Rousey has discussed how she struggled with
her body image in the past. She explained, "When I was in school, martial arts made you
a dork, and I became self-conscious that I was too masculine. I was a 16-year-old girl
with ringworm and cauliflower ears. People made fun of my arms and called me 'Miss Man'.
It wasn't until I got older that I realized: these people are idiots. I'm fabulous."