ELLE Fitness Editor, Muireann Carey-Campbell kick-starts your love affair with a modern day shero.

Whether you’re into sports or not, you need to know about Ronda Rousey. The first female fighter in the UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship), she’s the trash talking, roundhouse kicking, unapologetically kick ass hero we’ve been waiting for.

<font color="#00a8f1">She started young</font>

Born in North Dakota, Rousey, 28 started Judo at 11 and rose quickly through its ranks. After winning the bronze at the 2008 Olympics, and finding there wasn’t much support for Olympic athletes after the games, she decided to start training in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and made her professional debut in 2010. 

<font color="#00a8f1">She holds the record for the fastest submission in UFC history</font>

She made light work of her opponent Cat Zinago with her signature arm bar move, in just 14 seconds.

<font color="#00a8f1">Badass runs in the family</font>

Her mother took home the Gold medal at the 1984 World Judo Championships. Oh, and that signature ‘arm bar’? Yeah, her mama taught her that.

<font color="#00a8f1">She has unprecedented levels of badassery that most of us can only dream of</font>

Her last four fights lasted a combined total of 130 seconds. Just take a moment to think about that. The woman is the walking definition of strength and determination.

<font color="#00a8f1">She puts family first</font>

Rousey is ride or die for her family. During pre-fight trash talking, it would be unwise to bring her family into it. A recent opponent, Bethe Correia, mocked Rousey’s father’s suicide in a pre-fight interview. Needless to say, Rousey was unimpressed and vowed to make her pay. And true to her word, once in the ring, she knocked Correia out in 34 seconds flat.

<font color="#00a8f1">She flexes some major feminist muscle</font>

‘I think it's hilarious if people say that my body looks masculine, or something like that. I'm just like, 'Listen, just because my body was developed for a purpose other than f****** millionaires doesn't mean it's masculine.' I think it's femininely bad-ass as f*** because there's not a single muscle on my body that isn't for a purpose.’

And just like that, fit women the world over who’ve been battling the ‘muscular equals masculine’ jibes for years, collectively swooned.