10 Days That Changed UFC Forever
2. 23 February 2013 - Ronda Rousey Makes Her UFC Debut
When Dana White was asked when women would fight in the UFC, circa 2011, he notoriously answered "never."
What a difference just a few years make. While you should never trust anything White, a modern P.T. Barnum looking for his next sucker, says, this was probably one of the biggest about-faces the UFC President has ever made. That same year, the UFC had purchased Strikeforce, then home of the best women's roster in the sport. Among the names: Miesha Tate, Sarah Kaufman, Cris Cyborg, and of course, Ronda Rousey.
Yet White was initially cool to the idea of women fighting in the UFC. That was, until Rousey won him over. Finally acquiescing, the UFC promoted Rousey to UFC women's bantamweight champion (she already held the Strikeforce title, having won it from Tate). They then booked Rousey to headline UFC 157 on February 23, 2013 against Liz Carmouche. After an early scare by Carmouche, Rousey locked in her patented arm-bar, and a star was born.
UFC 157 would sell just under half a million buys on PPV. Rousey would go on to defend her title five more times after the Carmouche fight, and was bringing in roughly a million buys each time out by the end of her career. Though the sport caught up to her, it was Rousey who paved the way for women in the UFC, changing it forever.