2. Ronda Rousey
Rousey should require no introduction for today’s fans. Perhaps more than any other fighter on this list, Rousey’s Olympic credentials have been a fundamental component of promoters’ strategies in selling her to the masses, and judging by the reaction, that sale has been more successful than its creators’ wildest dreams.
After a two-year break, Rousey reemerged as a mixed martial artist in August 2010, winning her three amateur fights by armbar, all in less than a minute. Turning pro in March 2011, it took Rousey less than a year to accumulate four professional victories, all by armbar against respectable competition, and talk her way into a title fight against reigning Strikeforce champion Miesha Tate. One title fight in Strikeforce followed before the Ultimate Fighting Championship absorbed the division, and Rousey now has four defenses of her UFC championship under her belt. Only once has an opponent dragged her out of the first round, and Rousey has finished every single one of her victories.
Still only 27 years of age, Rousey is already one of the greatest female fighters of all-time, and a few more defenses of her title could cement her as the apex to which all future competitors aspire.
Number 1 » Dan Henderson