The UFC announced that Ronda Rousey will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame this July. Rousey will be the first women given the honor.
Per UFC press release:
UFC® today announced that former UFC and Strikeforce® women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey will be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame’s ‘Modern Wing’ as a member of the class of 2018. The 2018 UFC Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will take place on Thursday, July 5, at The Pearl at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas. The event will be streamed live and exclusively on UFC FIGHT PASS® starting at 7 p.m. PT.
“There would be no women in UFC without Ronda Rousey,” UFC President Dana White said. “Ronda is an absolute pioneer who helped me personally, and a lot of other people, look at women in combat sports differently. She accomplished everything she set out to do with UFC and became a global icon and role model in the process. Today, the women’s divisions are packed with incredibly talented fighters and they produce some of the best fights you’ll ever see. We’re proud to announce Ronda as the first woman to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame.”
Rousey will enter the UFC Hall of Fame as a member of the Modern Wing, joining Forrest Griffin (2013), BJ Penn (2015) and Urijah Faber (2017) as the only members of this distinguished category. Rousey also joins Faber as only the second athlete to be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame from the bantamweight division. The “Modern Era” category includes athletes who turned pro on or after November 17, 2000 (when the first UFC event under the unified rules of MMA was held), are a minimum age of 35 or who have been retired for one year or more.
“This is an immense honor, to not only take part in bringing women to the forefront of this sport, but now the UFC Hall of Fame,” Rousey said. “May I be the first of many.”
Payout Perspective:
The induction was a matter of “when” not “if” and Rousey’s presence during International Fight Week should bring some notoriety to the event which has suffered the last couple years from the lack of a big attraction. Regardless of the disdain that Rousey receives from some of the hardcore MMA fan, she deserves the honor for what she did in the Octagon but also how she helped the UFC business when Dana White did not believe that it could happen. And yes, you can believe that her current
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