Sherdog’s Top 10: Female Mixed Martial Artists

2. Ronda Rousey

No one knows when Rousey will return to fighting, but prior to her ill-fated encounter with Holly Holm’s shin at UFC 193, the “Rowdy” one was the closest thing MMA had to invincible.

Rousey ran roughshod over the opposition, as she captured bantamweight titles in Strikeforce and the Ultimate Fighting Championship. An Olympic bronze medalist in judo at the 2008 Summer Games, she moved to MMA in 2011 and made it look easy. Rousey finished her first 12 opponents, nine of them in less than a minute. While the armbar was her preferred method -- she submitted Miesha Tate (twice), Cat Zingano, Liz Carmouche and Sarah Kaufman with the maneuver -- the Riverside, California, native had other weapons at her disposal. Rousey knocked out Bethe Correia with punches, disposed of Alexis Davis with ground-and-pound and cut down Sara McMann with a knee strike to the body. Prolonged dominance made her the UFC’s biggest star, as she was compared to Mike Tyson and Muhammad Ali.

Everything changed at UFC 193 in Melbourne, Australia, where Rousey was on the wrong side of one of MMA’s most stunning upsets. Holm carved up the judoka with punches before knocking her senseless with a second-round head kick. Rousey has not fought since.

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