Two decades ago, when mixed martial arts went mainstream, the sport’s mostly male fan base often viewed women’s MMA as an inappropriate spectacle, something reserved for Worldstar videos, a 3 a.m. brawl at Waffle House, or both.
Two fighters changed that perception: Gina Carano and Ronda Rousey. A powerful striker with a muay thai background, Carano emerged in the late-aughts as the sport’s first breakout female star. But she never made it to the Ultimate Fighting Championship, which remained uninterested in women’s MMA for another half decade or so. That’s when Rousey, a world-class judoka, hip-tossed her way into the limelight, flattening nearly every woman she faced in the early to mid 2010s.
Carano and Rousey never fought in their primes. But on May 16, the sport’s first two female stars will finally square off in Netflix’s first-ever live MMA event, part of a card put together by Most Valuable Promotions.
In the lead up to the bout, we ranked the top 10 female UFC fighters of all-time. Rousey obviously made the list. Carano, who never fought in the Octagon, didn’t. But these GOATS wouldn’t be where they are if she hadn’t smashed stereotypes—and her opponents—a generation prior.
There are the 10 Best Female UFC Figthers of All Time.
