Ronda Rousey was thought-about the best girls’s blended martial artist to ever reside throughout her peak within the sport. The judo specialist appeared unstoppable, boasting a 12-0 document heading into her bout with Holly Holm, however the UFC 193 headliner was the start of the top for her profession within the sport.
‘Rowdy’ would endure a devastating head kick loss lower than one minute into the second spherical, dropping her undefeated streak and ladies’s bantamweight title within the course of. Though it occurred over eight years in the past, Ronda Rousey has now detailed precisely why she believes she misplaced on the evening.
Latest reviews are suggesting that Rousey had been affected by concussions all through her UFC profession and he or she has now spoken about her struggles in a current interview.
“I used to be so accomplished preventing after that loss [to Holly Holm],” Rousey stated in an interview with Valeria Lipovetsky. “I would had so many concussions, I actually could not take a jab with out getting a concussion at that time.”
“I bought to the purpose the place I simply neurologically wasn’t match to combat anymore. I would given all the pieces that I had till my physique and thoughts began to crumble. And once I could not give something anymore, they hated me for it.”
“I felt like I needed to come again for one more combat as a result of I felt like I owed it to the followers and everybody that believed in me. Perhaps I wanted to present them an instance of overcoming adversity.”
“It was to the purpose the place the subsequent combat, the primary time I bought touched I used to be out on my toes. It was so arduous as a result of I would by no means been quicker, by no means been stronger, by no means had a greater grasp of the sport. I would by no means been so significantly better than all people else.”
“Your mind does not callous. It does not heal again stronger after a break, it is simply an inevitable decline and I simply could not maintain preventing at that degree anymore.”
She later insisted that stated mind damage, alongside a defective mouthguard, price her the combat towards Holly Holm.
“My mouth guard was dangerous. I actually got here into that combat concussed from slipping down some stairs already in any case these years of concussions.”
“Then, I had a fully horrible weight minimize, which suggests you will have much less fluid in your mind to guard it.”
“I used to be simply attempting to make it seem like I wasn’t damage, however I wasn’t there cognitively. I could not suppose as quick. I could not choose distance, and simply from that one combat, all people felt like, ‘Oh, she’s a fraud.'”
Ronda Rousey later said that she was determined to make the followers glad, although has felt the brunt of how fickle individuals will be when you lose.
“I do know that I am the best fighter that has ever lived,” Rousey claimed. “However when it bought to a degree the place I would just taken a lot neurological harm that I could not take it anymore, abruptly all the pieces that I completed meant nothing.”
“So then after that second combat, and I noticed how all these people who I used to be coming again to combat for had abruptly turned towards me, all of my appreciation for them became resentment, and I simply did not wish to have something to do for them and with them anymore.”
“I did not wish to do something for them anymore, as a result of I gave them all the pieces that I had and so they hated me for not having the ability to give them extra.”
In line with Rousey, her reasoning for not disclosing her issues a lot sooner was solely to guard her profession.
“I believe individuals would have thought I used to be simply making excuses. And I could not say something after the primary combat, as a result of I would actually simply be placing a goal on my head.”
“After the second combat, I did not wish to say something to anybody, as a result of the media had been simply attempting to sensationalize all the pieces and chop all the pieces up right into a headline.”
“They weren’t attempting to assist me inform my story, and it is the sort of factor I believe that would solely have been informed in a e book. Solely in that lengthy kind, as a result of there was simply a lot that occurred, and a lot that went into at the moment.”
Associated: Ronda Rousey compares WWE and UFC fanbases
Her concussions had been so dangerous that she believes WWE would have by no means allowed her to compete in skilled wrestling had they identified the severity of it.
“Then I additionally needed to enter WWE, that they’ve a really difficult historical past with concussions in CTE and issues like that, and in the event that they knew how dangerous it was, I don’t suppose they ever would have employed me.”
“In the event that they knew that I used to be getting concussions from an open hand slap from Stephanie McMahon or Nikki Bella, they wouldn’t permit me to carry out.”
“So I needed to maintain this stuff to myself, to maintain my future in my very own fingers, and to have the ability to make my very own choices, as a result of if my coach or Dana [White] knew how dangerous issues had gotten, they might have made me retire, and I wasn’t prepared.”
Watch the complete Ronda Rousey interview under.
