Ronda Rousey burst onto the women's MMA scene in August of 2010. Born in Riverside County, California on February 1, 1987 to parents Ron Rousey and AnnMaria DeMars, little Ronda was born with an umbilical cord wrapped around her neck that damaged her vocal cords. She didn't speak coherently until the age of six. Ronda was a self-professed tomboy and swam from the ages of 6 to 10. She competed on the Jr. Olympic swim team where she placed in the state level.

Because of her mother, a 7th degree black belt and 1984 World Judo Champion, Ronda took up the sport. She had a hard time socializing with other kids and found that Judo gave her confidence. She holds a 4th degree black belt in the martial art.

Ronda's Judo career is a storied one. At 17 she became the youngest judoka in the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. That same year she won a gold medal at the World Junior Judo Championships in Budapest, and in 2006 she became the first U.S. female in almost 10 years to win an A-Level tournament going 5-0 to clench the gold at the World Cup in Great Britain. At 19 she won the bronze medal at the Junior World Championships. She is the first U.S. athlete to win two Junior World Medals. In 2007 she added a silver at the World Judo Championships and a gold at the Pan American Games. The pinnacle of her Judo career was a bronze at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Rousey became the first American to win an Olympic medal in women's Judo since it became an Olympic sport in 1992.

After medaling in the Olympics, Ronda's career hit a dead end. She did some bartending to make ends meet and tried to find a better paying job, but it was tough finding anyone that needed her particular skill set. Throwing people down and putting them in armbars aren't really something you can put on a resume. By chance Ronda caught the Gina Carano vs. Julie Kedzie fight on television and things changed.

Travis Browne (26 August 2017 - present)

Trivia

Fourth-degree black belt in judo.
At age 17 became youngest judoka (judo player) to compete at the Olympics, during the 2004 games in Athens, Greece.
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.
Was given the nickname "The Arm Collector" because she has won all her mixed martial arts bouts by arm bar.
One of her nicknames, "Rowdy", was given to her by retired pro-wrestler "Rowdy" Roddy Piper.
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.
Has two older sisters, Maria Burns-Ortiz and Jennifer Rousey, and one younger sister; Julia DeMars.
Her maternal grandfather, Joseph Arthur Waddell, was the son of immigrants from Trinidad, an island off the northeast coast of Venezuela; his ancestry included African, Spanish, and English, and he was the son of prominent Dr. Alfred Ernest Waddell, who settled in Canada. Ronda's other ancestry is 1/16th Polish, as well as English, German, Scottish, and distant Dutch.
She trains at Glendale Fighting Club under striking coach Edmond Tarverdyan and wrestling coach Juan Martín Berberián. She also trains at Hayestan MMA Academy under Gene LeBell, and Gokor Chivichyan and at Gracie Academy Torrence under Rener Gracie and Ryron Gracie.

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.
[on men being intimidated by her] Some guys are, but I feel like that just saves me time. If a guy is easily intimidated by a strong woman then that's obviously not the kind of man that I would be interested in anyway.
[her biggest inspiration] 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.
[on how her life has changed since signing a UFC contract] Just a couple of months ago I held three jobs. I had no air-conditioning in my car. I was like, living off the Costco diet. We called it the bomb shelter diet, actually, because we would just go to Costco and buy everything that wouldn't expire.
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.