Ronda Rousey not too long ago stated concussions ended her UFC profession. Now, the previous UFC bantamweight champion revealed her mind was injured heading into her battle with Holly Holm at UFC 193.
In an interview Tuesday with Valeria Lipovetsky, Rousey stated she was compromised by a mind damage she suffered main into the 2015 title battle. Consequently, she stated she was “out on my toes for your complete battle,” which ended within the second spherical with a brutal head kick from Holm.
“My mouth guard was unhealthy,” Rousey stated. “I actually got here into that battle concussed from slipping down some stairs already in spite of everything these years of concussions. Then I had a fully horrible weight reduce, which implies you’ve got much less fluid in your mind to guard it.”
“I used to be simply making an attempt to make it appear like I wasn’t harm, however I wasn’t there cognitively,” she added. “I couldn’t assume as quick. I couldn’t decide distance, and simply from that one battle, all people felt like, ‘Oh, she’s a fraud.’”
Rousey beforehand mentioned her historical past with concussions whereas previewing her new autobiography, “Our Combat.” She stated she suffered a number of concussions throughout her novice athletic profession in judo, and she or he continued to undergo them throughout her careers in MMA and pro-wrestling with WWE.
In her interview with Lipovetsky, Rousey revealed extra particulars about her knockout losses and her disillusionment afterward with followers and media. She stated she obsessed over social media and fought to make followers pleased, solely to see them flip when she misplaced in a comeback battle towards Amanda Nunes in 2016 at UFC 207.
“I do know that I’m the best fighter that has ever lived,” she stated Tuesday. “However when it bought to a degree the place I’d simply taken a lot neurological injury that I couldn’t take it anymore, all of the sudden all the pieces that I completed meant nothing.
“So then after that second battle, and I noticed how all these those who I used to be coming again to battle for had all of the sudden turned towards me, all of my appreciation for them become resentment, and I simply didn’t wanna have something to do for them and with them anymore. I didn’t wanna do something for them anymore, as a result of I gave them all the pieces that I had, they usually hated me for not having the ability to give them extra.”
A request for remark to the Australian Sports activities Fee, which regulated UFC 193, was not instantly returned.
Rousey’s admissions reveal a spot in oversight among the many majority of athletic commissions that regulate MMA. Athletes are required to undergo the fee pre-fight medical paperwork that features mind scans comparable to MRIs, along with present process pre-fight physicals from commission-approved medical doctors. (The UFC additionally collects this pre-fight medical paperwork to undergo commissions to be able to expedite the method of medical clearance.) These alone, nonetheless, can fail to offer a real image of an athlete’s mind well being when evaluated with out the context of earlier scans which will reveal clues as to mind accidents. Even situations linked in some research to long-term mind trauma, comparable to cavum septi pellucidi, might not disqualify fighters from combating due to regular anatomical variance between folks with the situation.
However for Rousey, the choice to not disclose her earlier points got here right down to defending her profession and fulfilling her mission to be the most effective fighter on the planet.
“I feel folks would have thought I used to be simply making excuses, and I couldn’t say something after the primary battle, as a result of I’d actually simply be placing a goal out of my head,” she stated. “And after the second battle, I didn’t need to say something to anybody, as a result of the media have been simply making an attempt to sensationalize all the pieces, and chop all the pieces up right into a headline; they weren’t making an attempt to assist me inform my story, and it’s the sort of factor I feel that would solely have been instructed in a e book. Solely in that lengthy type, as a result of there was simply a lot that occurred, and a lot that I went into at the moment.
“Then I additionally wished 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 unhealthy it was, I don’t assume 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 preserve this stuff to myself, to maintain my future in my very own arms, and to have the ability to make my very own choices, as a result of if my coach or [UFC CEO] Dana [White] knew how unhealthy issues had gotten, they might have made me retire, and I wasn’t prepared.”
See Rousey’s full interview under.
