Do we like Ronda Rousey?
Our score: 5 out of 10. A genuine trailblazer with a decent recent record, held back by 2013 comments on a trans fighter and a conspiracy video she shared and later apologised for.
Rousey was a judo prodigy long before she was a household name. She made the US Olympic team as a teenager, took bronze at the 2008 Beijing Games, then retired from judo at 21. She went on to become the first UFC women's bantamweight champion and the UFC's first female Hall of Famer, then moved to WWE, where she won the Raw Women's Championship.
Her fall from the top was just as public. She lost her UFC title to Holly Holm in 2015 and lost a comeback fight to Amanda Nunes in December 2016, then left the cage for years. That long absence is why the 2026 return felt like a story: a nearly decade-long gap, then a headline slot on a Netflix card.
The ugliest mark on her record is the Sandy Hook video. In 2013 she reposted a conspiracy clip about the Newtown shooting, and in August 2024 she apologised, calling it “the single most regrettable decision of my life.” Front Office Sports reported she also said she should have been cancelled and apologised directly to the families. That's an apology that names the thing, which counts for something, but it came 11 years late.
On trans people the record is old and uncomfortable. In 2013 she told the New York Post a fight against trans fighter Fallon Fox would be an advantage for Fox and “I don't think it's fair.” Trans advocates and Fox herself pushed back on that reasoning. We found no newer statement from her on trans athletes, so it's an old position, not a campaign, but it hasn't been revisited either. On the wider harm check, we found nothing on vaccines or climate, and in 2015 she told CNN she would not trust Donald Trump to run the country.
The Carano fight is the recent chapter. Rousey said a win could lead to a joint Netflix martial arts film, and before the bout she said the fight would be her last, calling it “the perfect way to end it.” She beat Carano by armbar in 17 seconds, according to AP's report. Carano, who lost her Disney role in 2021 over social media posts and later settled with the company, is a divisive opponent, but we found nothing where Rousey comments on Carano's politics. Her stated reason for the fight was personal: she said Carano was the one person she'd come back for.
On how she treats people, the picture is mostly clean. In 2024 she alleged that WWE wrestler Drew Gulak touched the drawstring of her sweatpants backstage; Gulak responded that it was an accident and that he had apologised. That's a she-said, he-said with no outcome we could find, and it shows her willing to speak up, not a pattern against anyone. Her public feuds with UFC figures over fighter pay are loud but about business, not people's identities.