At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she won a bronze medal, becoming the first American woman to win a medal since judo's inclusion in the Olympics.
Her mother, Dr. AnnMaria DeMars, is a seventh-degree black belt in judo, and the first American to ever win a world championship in judo, in 1984.
She suffered from damaged vocal cords after the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck during birth. Because of that, she wasn't able to speak until she was six years old.
Her father Ron Rousey committed suicide when she was eight years old. He had a rare disease called Bernard-Soulier Syndrome, a hemophilia-like disorder where the blood can't clot, which he didn't know he had. He broke his back in a sledding accident and it wasn't healing. His doctors told him that because of his condition, he had two years to live. First he'd become a paraplegic. Then he'd become a quadriplegic. Then he would die. So he killed himself to keep his family from going into debt and spare his family seeing him slowly die.
One of her nicknames, "Rowdy", was given to her by retired pro-wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
In 2011 Ronda appeared on "Honoo No Taiikukai TV", a Japanese game show where she went toe-to-toe with three men in a Judo competition. Ronda stated that it would be more fair if she fought all three men at once, but even then they still wouldn't have a chance of beating her. Appearing in her Olympic blue gi, she was instructed to look mean and draw each fight out as the bouts progressed. The first man lasted 17 seconds, the second 33 seconds, and the last fight just over 2 minutes.
At age 16, Ronda became the youngest judo competitor on the US national team.
In November of 2012 she became the first female fighter to sign a contract with the UFC.
Was given the nickname "The Arm Collector" because she has won all her mixed martial arts bouts by arm bar.
Her armlock submission against Cat Zingano at UFC 184 on February 28, 2015, set the record for the fastest submission in a UFC title fight at an amazing 14 seconds. The previous record of 16 seconds had been set at UFC Fight Night 13 in 2008 by Marcus Aurelio. She ties the all-time fastest submission win in promotion history.
Her first trip to the Emergency Room was due to a Raisinet. She and her older sisters had been making silly faces that included shoving candy up their noses when the inevitable happened. When her mother couldn't remove the candy, she took Ronda to the closest ER. By the time they arrived, the chocolate had melted enough for the candy to dislodge on its own.
Is a gamer and enjoys playing World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria (2005), "Mario Kart", and "Just Dance". She also serves as a storyline consultant for the educational video game company, 7 Generation Games.
In May of 2015, Business Insider ranked Ronda as the #1 most dominant athletes alive. Of the list of 50 athletes, Ronda was ranked ahead of #2 LeBron James, #3 Serena Williams, and #4 Cristiano Ronaldo.
In 2015 received the ESPY for Best Female Athlete and Best Fighter awards from ESPN. Rousey beat out fellow UFC fighter "Cowboy" Donald Ceronee, and boxers Floyd Merriweather, Gennady Golovkin, and Terence Crawford to become the first woman to ever receive the Best Fighter Award.
Her favorite Pokemon is Mew.
When Sports Illustrated released its first ever triple swimsuit issue (February 2016), Ronda, Ashley Graham and Hailey Clauson each made an individual cover.
Ronda's favorite toy as a child was a Wrestling Buddy of Hulk Hogan, a two-foot tall pillow version of the wrestler.
On August 1, 2015 defeated Brazilian Bethe "Pitbull" Correia in Brazil by knockout in 34 seconds of the first round of UFC 190 to retain her bantamweight title, bringing her fighting record to 12 wins, 0 losses. Rousey dedicated the win to "Rowdy" Roddy Piper, the man who gave her his nickname. Piper passed away the night before at age 61.
Ronda's autobiography, My Fight/Your Fight was co-authored with her sister, Maria Burns Ortiz. Released in May of 2015, it became an immediate New York Time's listed best seller.
Ranked #42 on Maxim's Hot 100 for 2014.
Inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame in 2018.
If there's chaos, it's good. And I need to put myself in situations where people are going to doubt me because I don't ever want to be in that lose lose situation where if you win, it's like, "Oh, of course you won," and if you lose, it's the end of the world. I want everyone to tell me that I can't do it because that motivates me more than anything.
People just live such pampered and soft lives now that sometimes we need to get a little bit hurt and get a little bit in a fight to be reminded that we're still humans, that we're not living in bubble wrap.
My mom is like an X-Men. She's unbelievable. She got a perfect score on the SATs at 16, graduated college at 19. She won the world championships in Judo as a single mother, working as an engineer, and getting her PhD . . . all at the same time. And then after my dad died she took a business from scratch and turned it into a multi-million-dollar company. She's absolutely amazing. Every single day I just try to be a little more like her because if I was doing that, I know I'm improving as a person.
Sometimes I'm a much more energetic and embellished version of myself, but sometimes I do things just for a little extra flair. I'm doing what I need to do for the lifestyle that I want, and I feel like I'm putting enough positive things out in the world. And that's the best that I can do.
I used to have a big box of medals and I was going to put them on a frame around the room. I took all the ribbons off and I was going to post them, and then the cat peed in the box and my mom threw out all my medals because they were covered in cat pee. My mom just throws stuff out. She doesn't care about medals and trophies and all that stuff. It's like, "Oh my god, your mom must be so excited about it." No, not really. She threw all of it out.
I was really shy and quiet. I was never very popular in school. I was made fun of for being muscular a lot so I always wore really baggy clothes . . . just very introverted. I had like two lives. I would go to school and be this introverted loser kid that no one really knew, and then I'd go out on the weekends to these Judo tournaments and everyone's like, "Oh, Ronda! Ronda! Hey! Whazzup?" You know what I mean? Like I kinda had this separate life where I was cool and this other life where I was a loser.
I couldn't even speak coherent English until I was six. I didn't really have any friends. Nobody liked me. And so I always felt like sports is a metaphor for life, and everything that I learned through Judo and MMA, I just applied to every area of my life. And I'm very lucky that I had such a productive outlet from such a young age.
I love Gina. I think she's awesome. I wouldn't be a fighter if it wasn't for her. I wouldn't have thought that women's MMA would've offered a real career, that I could support myself off of it, if it wasn't for her. I've met her before and she's just the biggest sweetheart ever. I wish nothing but the best for her.
I used to make up super heroes and stuff in my head. I loved Dragon Ball Z. That was one of my favorite shows when I was a kid because all the super heroes had to work and train really hard to be more even super and beat the next guy. And I invented in my head, a girl saying that I would fight and be with them and stuff. When I was little I had to make up and imagine up these girl role models that weren't there.
I love fighting because I get to have a big battle every couple of months to make up for the little battles I had to forfeit everyday.
No matter how much you try or what you say, people aren't going to fully understand you or where you're coming from. You just have to get used to being misunderstood.
I don't want every girl to have the same ambitions as me but I want them to be ambitious. I'm tired of seeing girls that shut up and have no ambition being idolized as what's attractive.
Bubble wrapping society is no way to make people more peaceful. MMA is the safest way for people to really get that natural aggression and frustration out.
People love tough chicks. They love tough chicks that really embrace their femininity. Look at all the "Tomb Raiders" and stuff like that. Those movies are multi-million-dollar movies for a reason. If I could really be that person in real life, people are going to love it. That's what I kept thinking. "They love tough, empowered women." There is demand there. People just don't know it.
Getting rapped about by Eminem is like getting armbarred by me. It might not be so pleasant if you're on the other side of it, but it's so skillfully done you have to be honored.
To get anything of real value, you have to fight for it.
There is nothing in my life that I would go back and change, even the darkest moments. All the successes and greatest joys in my life are a result of the absolute worst things. Every missed opportunity is a blessing in disguise.
To be the best, you have to be constantly challenging yourself, raising the bar, pushing the limits of what you can do. Don't stand still, leap forward.
There were times when I knew I was in a terrible situation, but I also knew it wouldn't last forever. Those are the moments when you have to remind yourself that this experience is a defining moment in your life, but you are not defined by it.
One of the greatest days of my life was when I came to understand that other people's approval and my happiness were not related.
People want to project their own insecurities on others, but I refuse to allow them to put them on me. Just because you don't think that you could be the best in the world doesn't mean that I shouldn't have the confidence to believe I can do anything.
No one is ever going to give you anything of value. You have to work for it, sweat for it, fight for it. But there is far greater value in accomplishments you earn than in accolades that are merely given to you. When you earn something, you never have to worry about justifying that you truly deserve it.
I'm more used to being booed by a crowd than I am being cheered. I have never been a fan favorite. Pretty much my entire competitive career has been defined by people hoping to see me lose.
There have always been people who have written me off. They're not going away. I use that to motivate me. I'm driven to show them just how wrong they are.
The knowledge that everything good can be taken away at any second is what makes me work so hard.
I want to be a perfect fighter, and that's one of those unattainable goals because you will never be perfect. But I can always be closer to perfect.
There's not a single muscle on my body that isn't for a purpose because I'm not a Do-Nothing Bitch. It's not very eloquently said, but it's to the point. And maybe that's just what I am. I'm not that eloquent, but I'm to the point.
