Ronda Rousey

Nothing about Ronda Rousey's life had really been easy. She was born with her umbilical cord wrapped around her neck, which impeded her development so she couldn't speak until she was 6 years old. After years of intensive speech therapy, Rousey eventually was able to speak and that led to a resilience in her youth. After she dropped out of high school, she trained for the 2008 Olympics in judo, eventually earning a medal for the sport, a first for the USA. Right after the Olympics, Rousey retired from judo and set her sights on MMA. Within two years, she made her debut in the sport. From the outset, Rousey was dominant, quickly rising through the ranks until she became the first woman to sign a contract with the UFC in 2012. When she entered the UFC, she was the Women's Bantmanweight Champion, a title that enriched her celebrity status. That led to her appearance in "The Expendables 3" (2014) as the first woman in Sylvester Stallone's cavalcade of action stars. She also appeared in "Furious 7" (2015) and played herself in "Entourage" (2015). At the end of 2015, Rousey lost her first MMA bout, losing her title to underdog Holly Holm. The loss of her championship wasn't a detriment to her success, though, as she was cast in the Patrick Swayze role in the remake of "Road House" and was very well received as a host of "Saturday Night Live" (NBC 1975- ) in 2016. After appearing in episodes of comedy series "Drunk History" (Comedy Central 2013- ) and crime drama "Blindspot" (NBC 2015- ), Rousey joined a reboot of '70s camp classic "Battle of the Network Stars" (ABC 2017- ), coaching one of the teams of celebrities opposite football star DeMarcus Ware.