On Saturday night, Ronda Rousey headlined the UFC 190 event in Rio de Janeiro, knocking out the previously undefeated Bethe Correia in just 34 seconds. Her three UFC fights leading up to the Correia matchup lasted 14 seconds, 16 seconds, and a little over a minute, respectively. Rousey now has an undefeated record of 12-0, and is well on her way to becoming one of the all-time greatest fighters in an arena that, until recently, didn’t allow women to compete at all.
In 2011, Ultimate Fighting Championship president Dana White was walking out of a restaurant in Hollywood when someone asked: “When are we going to see women in the UFC?” “Never,” he said, dipping into his SUV while laughing, as if the question was hardly worth asking. Then, in 2012, Olympic medalist Rousey armbarred her way into becoming the first female fighter to sign with the UFC. Since then, Rousey has been—quite literally—an unstoppable force with her 12-0 record. Last month, Rousey won the ESPY for Best Fighter, beating out Floyd Mayweather and then laying into him after the win with a dig that quickly went viral.
It’s a story that’s begging to be turned into a biopic, and Paramount Pictures is on it, snatching up the rights to Rousey’s New York Times best-selling autobiography My Fight/Your Fight, to be adapted by Mark Bomback for the big screen. And who better to play Rousey than herself? The invincible bantamweight champion is already attached to star in her own story.
It isn’t very common for athletes to play themselves in their own biopics, but as Rousey’s fighting career has gathered speed, so has her acting career. Rousey was easily the most watchable part of Entourage, where she also played herself. She also appeared in The Expendables 3 and went head-to-head with Michelle Rodriguez in Furious 7’s best fight sequence. She is also set to star in the upcoming action thriller Mile 22, as well as the Warner Bros. action film The Athena Project, which is still in development.
Rousey’s autobiography—which she co-wrote with her sister Maria Burns Ortiz—was published this spring and tells the story of her complicated rise to fighting fame. According to Variety, Rousey knew she wanted to star in the film adaptation and made this clear in negotiations with studios when the rights to the book were put on the market. The project is still in its early stages of development, and there currently is no production timetable in place, but Bomback has already started adapting the book. Rousey is expected to fight once more before the end of the year. Best of luck to the poor soul who has to go up against her next.