Women’s sports have not always been what they are now, especially in the world of combat sports like wrestling, boxing, or mixed martial arts. There has been a long list of influential women in the sports and entertainment worlds that paved the way for generations to come and like her or not, Ronda Rousey is one of these people.

Rousey has a long list of accomplishments in the world of sports, including but not limited to; Being the first American woman to win a medal (bronze) in the Olympics for Judo, which she won in 2008, Six successful title defenses in UFC, and she was inducted into the International Sports Hall of Fame earlier this year. She was also the first female champion for the UFC, and the first Olympic medalist to hold a title for the company. So yeah, she’s pretty talented.

She’s called the Baddest Woman on the Planet and the Queen of Combat sports for a reason, and she changed the way women athletes were portrayed in combat sports. Before Rousey signed in 2012, the only females to enter the Octagon were over-sexualized Ring Girls and the occasional female referee. She is a role model for young men and women alike to create change and challenge the stereotypes of women in athletics.

Like I mentioned earlier, Rousey was the first woman to enter the previously all-male promotion known as the UFC, and she took the world by storm by taking names and never stepping down. Fast forward a bit to February 28, 2015 where she closed the show and headlined the biggest Mixed Martial Arts promotion of that time. On that day a woman was the main attraction in a sport predominantly attended and viewed by men.

Now that she is signed by WWE to the Monday Night RAW brand, she is still kicking butt. She may have more women to keep her company is this chapter of her career, but she is still feared big time in the squared-circle. Debuting and shocking the world at the 2018 WWE Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View in early January, she played a pivotal role in the Women’s Revolution of the World Wrestling Entertainment.

Ronda Rousey has shown that anything a man can do, women can do, but better. Rousey’s aggressive, explosive style brings all people out to watch, discuss, and debate in a way that doesn’t typically occur in the world of sports. When she was in middle school she was bullied for liking martial arts and called a dork for wanting to pursue it. He classmates made fun of her and called her nicknames like ‘Miss Man.’ She is certainly proving them and the whole world wrong now with her extensive career and her role in the evolution of women’s sports. I personally cannot wait to see what she has in store for the WWE and future combat sports and entertainment.