Ronda Rousey is living proof that you don’t have to stay in your lane.
Until recently, ‘Rowdy’ was one of the biggest stars in professional wrestling, but she’s also enjoyed massive success in judo, mixed martial arts, and acting over the years.
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Rousey became the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in judo when she claimed bronze at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing.
The 37-year-old retired from judo when she was just 21, but she’ll surely be tuning in to the Paris 2024 Games -which is LIVE on talkSPORT in July.
Rousey began her mission to become an MMA star soon after.
It was a bold and potentially catastrophic career move, as theUFChad never put on a female fight and its president,Dana White, had no intention of doing so.
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In January 2011, theUFC CEOwas leaving a restaurant when he was approached by a paparazzi who asked: “When are we gonna see women in the UFC?”
“Never,” White famously responded before Rousey came along.
Two years later, Rousey boasted a perfect 6-0 record after tapping out all her opponents in the first round with her signature move - the armbar - to become the Strikeforce bantamweight champion.
The mother of one did the same thing to Liz Carmouche in her UFC debut before ending her rivalry with Miesha Tate with a third-round armbar win in December 2013.
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Rousey finished her next four UFC bantamweight title defences in the very first round, but she showed her game was evolving by picking up three KO/TKO victories.
The 12-0 fighter had become a global icon and the biggest star on White’s roster by the time she ran into former boxing champion Holly Holm at UFC 193 in November 2015.
Ronda Rousey reveals she had concussion problems during her career and admits that she hid her medical issues from the UFC
Holm scored a stunningsecond-round KO winto take Rousey’s title and essentially end her MMA career before Amanda Nunes officially retired ‘The Baddest Woman on the Planet’ 13 months later.
Rousey continued breaking down barriers when she became the first woman inducted into theUFC Hall of Famein 2018 – White couldn’t have been happier his stance on female fighting was proven wrong.
The UFC boss recently opened up about Rousey’s meteoric rise to superstardom and explained how it ultimately impacted her fighting career.
“Ronda was very unique in that she came in and put this thing on the world stage. This thing being women fighting,” White said onThe Club Shay Shaypodcast.
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“She put it on the world stage at a level that nobody else could have done it.
“While she was doing what she was doing, building the sport and the UFC and women, all these other women were training to beat her.
“She had taken so much on her shoulders at the time, it was literally impossible for her to keep growing as a fighter during that period.”
White had mixed emotions when Rousey retired following her loss to Nunes.
He added: “I was sad that I wouldn’t work with her on a daily basis like we did but I felt like the timing was right.”
“She had done everything she set out to do. Not just for her and her career but what she did for women in fighting in general.”
Rousey parlayed her celebrity status into a career in Hollywood.
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The UFC legend has several credits to her name after starring in the most recent Charlie's Angels film, Mile 22, Entourage, Furious 7 and a TV series called 9-1-1.
Most memorably, she also appeared in Expendables 3 alongside some of the best action actors in the business – including‘Rocky’ star Sylvester Stallone– in 2014.
Harrison Ford, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Antonio Banderas. Wesley Snipes, Mel Gibson and Terry Crews were just some of the other people who made up the ensemble cast.
Since then, Rousey has been perfecting her acting skills in the WWE where she won three titles before ending her run with the company last year.
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The hottest free agent in combat sports made an appearance for aminor professional wrestling league, Ring of Honour, but has since ruled out a return to wrestling.
In a recent interview with talkSPORT MMA, Rousey opened up about her long history with concussions, which ended her UFC career and negatively impacted her time in the WWE.
She said: "I've gone into fights before from having concussion symptoms after sparring. But I think that one was definitely the most severe [against Holly Holm].
“It wasn't like I got tagged in sparring and was seeing stars and had sensitivity to the light and had to lock myself in the locker room afterwards in the darkness to get over, that had happened before many of my fights.
"Before that fight [against Holm], I literally slipped down the stairs and knocked myself out. And that was definitely a much more severe concussion, much closer to the fight than I'd ever dealt with before.”
The multi-talented star has announced she’s changing career again – this time she taking on something totally different that doesn’t rely on her athletic ability.
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Rousey has become a screenwriter and signed a deal with Netflix.
Mark Bomback, who wrote Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and The Wolverine, was initially retained to adapt her story into a screenplay – but Rousey wanted to write it herself.
It appears she was a natural as she impressed her agents by reportedly writing a script about her own life in just seven days.
Bosses at the streaming giant loved the screenplay and reached out to find out about the writer before discovering it was the MMA icon.
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The producers are expected to meet with actors in the coming months before putting a cast together and starting production.
Rousey will be heavily involved in the entire process as she continues to prove that she can do anything she puts her mind to.
