Ronda Rousey, a professional fighter in the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has just recently won the award for best female athlete and best fighter at the 2015 ESPY awards. To win the award for best fighter, she beat out prominent male boxer Floyd Mayweather. Not only is she becoming a superstar, she is on path to become one of the greatest fighters who ever lived. The best part about it, the country is finally allowing it to happen. It seems like this precedent for women not being able to be tough, be fighters, and also be pretty, is swiftly going away with each fight that Ronda Rousey emphatically wins.

To give a brief background, the president of the UFC, Dana White, said in 2012 that women would never fight in the UFC. Everything changed when Ronda kept calling White and insisting that she would change the way the world looks at women fighters. Now she is the face of the UFC. Rousey currently has 3.9 million followers on Instagram. The UFC page itself only has 2.6 million. The closest to Rousey in terms of followers from the UFC, is Anderson Silva with 1.8 million. In just three short years she has won the hearts of every UFC fan on the planet and become the face of the franchise.

Just the other day I was watching Rousey’s fight at a local bar that I frequent whenever there is a UFC event. The other night was special because the place was absolutely packed, and when I say packed I mean absolutely no standing room. I had never seen that many people in the place before, not for any other UFC event featuring male fighters. When she easily won in the first thirty-four seconds by knockout, the place went nuts. Grown men were standing on top of tables celebrating the complete dominance of this American phenom. The whole place was chanting her name acting as if the United States had just won the World Cup (again). It was then that I realized this woman is not only changing the UFC, but she is changing the world. In sport that was supposed to be “just for men”, a sport to show who the toughest and most skilled man on the planet; she is showing that a woman is the toughest out of all of them.

So why is this happening? Why is America allowing a woman to be the face of this fighting organization? I believe that America has changed there so called “seeing glasses”. More and more we are starting to look at the inner passion of the human being to inspire us, instead of the outward appearance. America has fallen in love with the passion of Ronda Rousey. Each fight she walks into the cage looking more pierce and more powerful than any male UFC fighter. She oozes with passion and every match, she steps into that cage and the people of America are inspired. America loves watching a person with a chip on their shoulder prove everyone wrong. So if you are someone with a passion, but thinks it’s not possible because of the circumstances of this country, you are thinking wrong. The people of America will support you, they want to see you at the top telling your story about how everyone doubted you.

No longer does in America does it take the most powerful strongest person to complete the task. It takes the person with the most passion. It takes the person with the most determination. Ronda Rousey is an emblem for hope. So lastly America, if you are passionate about something, or see anything wrong than you think is right, start speaking up. We are at a time in this country when your opinion is valued highest and people are listening. People are more forgiving and more accepting than ever before. Speak up people and keep Ronda Rousey in your minds when you do.