Ronda Rousey: What Is The Former UFC Star’s MMA Record?

Ronda Rousey has been making waves in WWE for a while now after transitioning from combat sports to the world of sports entertainment. Ever since her first on-camera appearance at SummerSlam 2014, the self-proclaimed "baddest woman on the planet" was rumored to be entering the squared circle for years before she officially signed with the company in 2017. After making her presence felt in the aftermath of the inaugural Women's Royal Rumble, she made her in-ring WWE debut at Wrestlemania 34, successfully teaming up with Kurt Angle against Triple H and Stephanie McMahon. Rousey has since won both the "Raw" and "SmackDown" Women's Championships, main-evented WWE's first all-woman pay-per-view, and taken part in the first Wrestlemania main event in history to feature the women's division. Regardless of how you feel about Rousey, it's undeniable that her star power and influence helped galvanize WWE's women's division from 2017 to 2019.

But where did that star power and influence come from? You had probably heard Rousey's name prior to her arrival in WWE, but if you weren't following mixed martial arts at the time, you might not know why she was so famous, or what WWE was capitalizing on when they brought her into wrestling. Long before stepped into the ring, Rousey was an undeniable superstar in Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and she has the record to prove it.

Rousey became a household name during her time in UFC

Long before arriving in WWE, Rousey took the fighting world by story, collecting an array of medals in women's judo — a feat that also saw her compete at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China — before eventually training in mixed martial arts. It was from here that Rousey became a household name, becoming UFC's record-breaking inaugural Women's Bantamweight Champion and holding the title for 1,074 days.

Rousey began competing at the amateur level in 2010 before stepping up to professional competition the following year. Her first handful of matches took place for King of the Cage, Hard Knocks Fighting Championship, and Strikeforce, after which she became exclusive to Dana White and UFC. For the first five years of her professional career, she was undefeated, and overall she has 12-2 professional record in MMA. She only tasted defeat in her final two matches in the sport, losing the Women's Bantamweight Championship to Holly Holm in 2015 before registering another loss to Amanda Nunes in a failed bid to win back the gold the following year. Her popularity can be credibly said to have impacted women's representation in MMA just as it did in WWE — the UFC, as of this writing, currently has four active female championship's across four different weight classes.