The level of Rondas greatness is misunderstood. Her mom was the first American world judo champ. Her dad killed himself to spare his family the suffering he was going through with some disease, when she was a kid. Rondas is a world medalist, Olympic medalist, national medalist, pan am medalist. She's competed not tens of times or even scores, but hundreds or thousands of times. In a sport where numbers of fights are measured in tens, that's a huge advantage.
Mma is awesome, but it creates Jacks if all trades, Masters of none. Rondas is a master of judo, and while judo is almost solely grappling, it's one of the more complete martial arts, with an answer for nearly every question asked of it, be it in the firm of punches or kicks or anything else.
She committed her life to the mastery of that, and is at the top of that heap. She's one of the elite fighters in the world, and not because of Mma, but despite it. She took the harder road of mastering one thing, and is now reaping the rewards.
As a judoka myself, watching her fights is astonishing. Non-judoka probably don't even realize the level of what they're seeing, thinking 'oh, she threw her down', but it's way more subtle a game that that, just toying with people's balance, changing their game plan, and inserting the armbar when she wants. She creates the situation in which she can win by her chosen means. Pure mastery.
I have done judo with her. Yes, I lost, every time.
