5 UFC fights that changed the course of the promotion's history

#3 Ronda Rousey vs. Holly Holm

Build ‘em up and Break ‘em down – There is no perennial domination in this sport, eventually, reality always catches up

From its initiation in the early days as an experiment to reaching at least a point of intermediate maturity, as a sport, MMA evolved at warp speed and almost incessantly. But still, if there was one stone left unturned, it was the addition of female MMA fighters in the UFC.

Before Ronda Rousey, Dana White had made it very clear publicly that there would be no women fighting in the UFC anytime soon. However, after the meteoric rise of Ronda Rousey on her rise to title contention and then being a dominant Champion, White was forced to reconsider his plans regarding that move.

Soon the Women's Bantamweight division became a staple in the UFC and Ronda the imminent star of the division. As she saw herself rising to the top, she started buying into her own hype a little bit. And as every new day passed with ideas of invincibility hammered onto her by the media, her coaches and fans alike, it was certainly the beginning of the end for Rousey.

Rousey had acted as the linchpin for the drastic move that UFC had made tapping into a new market, the mainstream arena of regular people and young girls. She had inadvertently become a role model for many of them and continued to garner scrutinising media attention throughout the wave.

But the UFC shared a lot of demographics with the WWE fans and wanted a sizeable chunk of them to come their way, hence the catchphrase "As real as it gets." Although they were trying to play that card, they always knew that it could backfire on them and their narrative.

The invincible Ronda Rousey had her Achilles heel in striking exposed a few times but not so much as to cost her a fight. At the height of her fame, she faced the 18-time world boxing champion Holly Holm at UFC 193.

In front of a crowd of tens of thousands of people, Holly Holm shocked the world by knocking Ronda Rousey out with a well-timed head kick and following up with brutal but unnecessary hammer fists.

The world was simultaneously in shock and awe, an outpour of emotions followed and Ronda Rousey had to build herself from scratch, for the first time in her career.

Covering such an untapped demographic and then getting them through this emotional roller coaster through the journey of Ronda Rousey's rise and decline, was surely a pivotal moment in the history of UFC and one that really set the company on a different course.