9 Awesome Things Ronda Rousey Has Done As UFC Champion

Ronda Rousey has for years been painted as the bad girl, even as she has shot to MMA and Hollywood super-stardom. To be fair, she has not been a huge help to her own cause. As the Strikeforce, then UFC women's bantamweight champion (the first and only, in the case of the UFC), and as the face of women's MMA, she has always acted relatively arrogant in the cage. She has downplayed opponents, acted the part of a diva on the set of The Ultimate Fighter, and refused to shake hands with her most challenging opponent to date, Miesha Tate, following their second bout (Tate is the woman Rousey originally beat to win the bantamweight championship in Strikeforce). Yet all this poor sportsmanship seems to remind us of is the greats of other sports - from fighters like Ali and Tyson to the greats of team sports, like the NBA's Michael Jordan. These athletes were simply so good that they never doubted themselves, at least in their prime - and they achieved the highest levels of success in their respective sports. Rousey is just like that, but despite the bad rap, she also does some great things. In fact, to borrow from the WWE's Edge and Christian just a little, she still manages to reek of awesomeness from time to time. With that in mind, here are nine awesome things Ronda Rousey has done as the UFC women's bantamweight champion (and the face of her sport).