There is no doubt that Ronda Rousey is one of the most successful and popular athletes in the world. She has dominated her sport, and her career has been nothing short of amazing. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at Ronda Rousey’s life and career. We will explore how she became one of the most successful athletes in history, and we will discuss her future prospects.
Who is Ronda Rousey?
Ronda Rousey is an American mixed martial artist, judoka, and actress. She is the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She has won 12 MMA fights, six of them in the UFC, and is the first and only woman to win a UFC title. Rousey trains under Gokor Chivichyan of the Hayastan MMA Academy, and Edmond Tarverdyan of the Glendale Fighting Club. In 2015, she was ranked at number 29 on Forbes’ list of the highest-paid athletes, and she was ranked 8th on ESPN’s “World Fame 100” list in 2016. Rousey has also appeared in several films and television shows, including The Expendables 3 (2014), Fast & Furious 7 (2015), and Entourage (2015). In 2018, she had a role in the film Mile 22.
Ronda Rousey was born on February 01, 1987, in Riverside County, California. She is the youngest of three daughters of AnnMaria De Mars and Ron Rousey. Her mother was the first American to win a Wold Judo Championship in 1984. Her biological father broke his back sledding with his daughters, learned that he was going to be a paraplegic, and committed suicide in 1995 when Rousey was only 8 years old.
Rousey has two sisters, Maria Burns-Ortiz and Julia DeMars. She was raised in a modest home in Riverside, and she began judo at the age of 11. Rousey has said that her mother used judo to discipline her daughters when they were young and that it was “the only sport [she] ever really loved”.
During Ronda’s first six years, she struggled with speech and could not form an intelligible sentence due to apraxia, a neurological childhood speech sound disorder. This speech disorder is said to have come from being born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. When Ronda was 3 years old, her parents moved from Riverside, California to Jamestown, North Dakota, to get intensive speech therapy with specialists at Minot State University. Ronda later dropped out of high school and later earned her GED. She was raised between Jamestown and Southern California.
Ronda Rousey’s Olympic Judo Career
Ronda started judo training with her mom at 11 years old and trained with her until she was 13, when she accidentally broke her mom’s wrist. In the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Ronda was 17 and was the youngest judoka to qualify. She ended up losing her first match to Claudia Heill, who won the silver that year. In that same year, Ronda did win a gold medal at the World Junior Judo Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
In April of 2006, Ronda became the first female U.S. judoka in nearly 10 years to win an A-Level tournament. She went 5-0 to claim gold at the Birmingham World Cup in Great Britain. Later on in that same year, she won bronze at the Junor World Championships, becoming the first U.S. athlete to win two Junior World medals.
Then in February 2007, Rousey bumped up to 70 kg where she ranked as one of the top three women in the world. In that year she won the silver medal at the 2007 World Judo Championships in the middleweight division and got the gold medal at the 2007 Pan American Games.
In the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, she lost her quarterfinal to the Dutch ex-world champion Edith Bosch, but qualified for a bronze. She ended up beating Annett Boehm by Yuko to win the bronze medal. When she got that bronze, Ronda became the first American to win an Olympic medal in women’s judo since it became an Olympic sport back in 1992.
She later retired from judo at 21 after the Olympics.
Ronda Revolutionized Women’s MMA
Ronda Rousey is a mixed martial artist and judoka. She is the former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion, as well as the last Strikeforce Women’s Bantamweight Champion. She has been named “the most dominant athlete alive” by ESPN and “the most famous fighter in MMA” by Bloody Elbow. In 2015, she was voted the Best Female Athlete Ever in an ESPN poll.
She is widely considered to be one of the pioneers of women’s MMA, as well as one of the sport’s greatest ever athletes. Rousey has dominated her opponents with a combination of Judo throws, technical striking, submission grappling, and an unbreakable will to win. In November 2015, Rousey defeated Holly Holm to regain the UFC Women’s Bantamweight Championship, before losing it to Amanda Nunes in December 2016. Despite this setback, Rousey’s impact on the sport of MMA cannot be understated – she is a true pioneer who has changed the landscape of women’s MMA forever.
Ronda Rousey’s Family Life
Rousey is currently married to fellow MMA fighter Travis Browne. The couple has one child together, a daughter named La’akea Makalapuaokalanipo Browne. Rousey has said that she wants to have more children in the future.
What does Ronda Rousey’s Daughter’s Name Mean?
The name La’akea Makalapuaokalanipō Browne, is a result of Travis Kuualiialoha Browne’s Hawaiian origin. The enormous 6 feet 7-inch heavyweight, who is from Honolulu, picked “La’akea” as his daughter’s moniker, which is a pretty common girls’ name in Hawaii.
“La’a” means sacred, holy, consecrated while “kea” means light, and the name roughly means “sacred light”. However, the middle name “Makalapuaokalanipō” is more of a traditional name, without any direct translation to English.
What Made Ronda Rousey So Popular?
There’s no denying that Ronda Rousey was a trailblazer in the world of MMA. She was the first woman to be signed by the UFC, and she quickly established herself as a force to be reckoned with in the Octagon. But what made her so popular? Part of it surely had to do with her impressive string of victories.
In her first six UFC fights, she won all but one by submission, and five of those came in the first round. But there was more to it than just her fighting prowess. Rousey was also charismatic and media-savvy, two qualities that helped her crossover into the mainstream.
She appeared in movies and TV shows and was never afraid to speak her mind. As a result, she became one of the most recognizable faces in the UFC, and one of the most popular athletes in the world.
Why Ronda Is One Of The Most Successful Athletes In History
Ronda Rousey is one of the most celebrated athletes in history. She is the first and only woman to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame, and she is widely considered to be one of the greatest mixed martial artists of all time. But Rousey’s success goes far beyond her accomplishments in the ring. She has also become a powerful voice for women’s rights and an Inspiring role model for young girls.
In a world where women are often underrepresented in sports, Rousey has proven that anything is possible with hard work and determination. As she continues to break down barriers, there is no doubt that Ronda Rousey will go down in history as one of the most successful athletes of all time.