Ronda Rousey has been one of the most prominent faces in UFC and WWE, winning many accolades to her name. Her stint with the UFC made her one of the highest paid athletes on the roster, and was the first woman to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.
She started her mixed martial arts journey back in 2011, and held the record for most UFC title defenses by a female (6), until Valentina Shevchenko broke it in 2022. Rousey finally bid adieu to her MMA career in 2016 to join the WWE.
The Baddest Woman on The Planet has also dipped her toes in the Hollywood pool, joining the action packed Fast and Furious franchise in 2015. Rousey has always been very outspoken and is not one to shy away from her achievements. When she was still in the UFC, Rousey was asked about her stance on gender pay gap, and her comment made waves that is still remembered by fans.
Ronda Rousey on Gender Pay Gap
Back in 2015, in the build-up to her fight with Holly Holm – Ronda Rousey‘s first loss in the UFC, the athlete was asked about her stance on gender pay gap when she was in Australia. At the time, there was a debate going around about the Australian Women’s Soccer Team getting paid significantly less than their male counterpart. This led to a reporter asking Rousey what she thought about the ongoing issue.
Her reply to that was not what many expected – and has been praised by many, while also getting some backlash from others.
“I think how much you get paid should have something to do with how much you bring in. I’m the highest paid fighter not because Dana [White] and Lorenzo [Fertitta] wanted to ‘do something nice for the ladies,'” she said. “They do it because I bring in the highest numbers. They do it because I bring in the most money. And I think the money that they [female athletes] make should be proportionate to the money they bring in.”
Ronda Rousey Is a Supermom
“I felt like I had just been hit by a semi-truck with razor blades straight to the crotch. I was like, ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna make this work,’ but I worked really hard and got there.”
“Well my mom. She was an example of being a working, strong mother. She was an engineer and working for Ph.D. and was the first American to win a world championship in Judo while she was a single mother all the same time. And I always felt like I could do anything as a mom because of her and I wanted to give my little girl the same example.”
