4. Ronda Rousey
WMMA's biggest superstar comes in at fourth. Rousey is an utterly fascinating figure, the perfect storm of ingredients for being a massive draw. She was one of the biggest box office attractions MMA has ever seen, and no woman since has come remotely close, including the ones in front of her on this list. Fame and popularity aside, she was a unique fighter with a one-of-a-kind career. Rousey possessed a level of physical strength and athleticism WMMA has never seen before or since and combined it with world-class judo, making her one of its very best grapplers ever. Her striking was sorely lacking, and as we later found out, she was incredibly mentally weak. However, for a long time, it didn't remotely matter. In fact, based off physical strength, athleticism, and aggression alone, she recorded stand-up knockouts of Bethe Correia via punches and Sara McMann from a knee to the body. She began her career 12-0 and all were finishes, with an incredible nine coming by armbar, including two against Miesha Tate, breaking Julia Budd's arm in 39 seconds, submitting Liz Carmouche at the end of the first round, finishing Sarah Kaufman in less than a minute and needing just 14 seconds to tap Cat Zingano with a straight armbar. Those were excellent opponents too, even by modern standards.
Rousey was considered by far the greatest female fighter of all time when she faced Holly Holm in late 2015, but she would never win again and would retire in little more than a year. Holm was able to stop Rousey's takedown attempts and pelt her with strikes, exploiting her total lack of defense. When Rousey, fighting at her usual breakneck pace, couldn't finish Holm in the first, she slowed down considerably in the second and was knocked out by perhaps the most famous head kick in MMA history. Rousey came back a year later to challenge Amanda Nunes for the title, but her confidence was shattered, and she looked like a deer in headlights as she absorbed one punch after another to the head, with the referee mercifully stopping the bout in under a minute. At only 29 years old, Rousey was done with MMA and took her talents to pro wrestling. Her career was still great enough to make the top half of this list, but one can only wonder how much higher she would be with a different mental approach.
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