Ronda Rousey was thought of the best girls’s blended martial artist to ever dwell throughout her top within the sport. The judo specialist seemed unstoppable, boasting a 12-0 file heading into her bout with Holly Holm, however the UFC 193 headliner was the start of the tip for her profession within the sport.
‘Rowdy’ would undergo 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 night time.
Current stories 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 executed combating 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 acquired to the purpose the place I simply neurologically wasn’t match to combat anymore. I would given the whole lot that I had till my physique and thoughts began to collapse. And after I could not give something anymore, they hated me for it.”
“I felt like I needed to come again for an additional combat as a result of I felt like I owed it to the followers and everybody that believed in me. Possibly I wanted to present them an instance of overcoming adversity.”
“It was to the purpose the place the subsequent combat, the primary time I acquired touched I used to be out on my toes. It was so onerous as a result of I would by no means been sooner, by no means been stronger, by no means had a greater grasp of the sport. I would by no means been so a lot better than all people else.”
“Your mind would not callous. It would not heal again stronger after a break, it is simply an inevitable decline and I simply could not maintain combating at that stage anymore.”
She later insisted that stated mind damage, alongside a defective mouthguard, price her the combat towards Holly Holm.
“My mouth guard was unhealthy. I actually got here into that combat concussed from slipping down some stairs already in spite of everything these years of concussions.”
“Then, I had a completely horrible weight lower, which implies you will have much less fluid in your mind to guard it.”
“I used to be simply making an attempt to make it seem like I wasn’t damage, however I wasn’t there cognitively. I could not suppose as quick. I could not decide 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 completely satisfied, although has felt the brunt of how fickle folks could be when you lose.
“I do know that I am the best fighter that has ever lived,” Rousey claimed. “However when it acquired to some extent the place I would just taken a lot neurological harm that I could not take it anymore, all of a sudden the whole lot that I achieved meant nothing.”
“So then after that second combat, and I noticed how all these folks that I used to be coming again to combat for had all of a sudden 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 the whole lot that I had they usually 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 folks 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 making an attempt to sensationalize the whole lot and chop the whole lot up right into a headline.”
“They weren’t making an attempt to assist me inform my story, and it is the form 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.”
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Her concussions had been so unhealthy that she believes WWE would have by no means allowed her to compete in skilled wrestling had they recognized the severity of it.
“Then I additionally wished to enter WWE, that they’ve a really sophisticated historical past with concussions in CTE and issues like that, and in the event that they knew how unhealthy 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 enable me to carry out.”
“So I needed to maintain this stuff to myself, to maintain my future in my very own palms, and to have the ability to make my very own selections, as a result of if my coach or Dana [White] knew how unhealthy issues had gotten, they might have made me retire, and I wasn’t prepared.”
Watch the whole Ronda Rousey interview under.
