Ronda Rousey: I'd be booed if I went again to a UFC occasion

Ronda Rousey was, at instances, a polarizing determine within the MMA world.

And although she’s been gone from the game for longer than she was in it, she stays a major character within the area – and stays polarizing.

With the discharge of her second e book, “Our Struggle,” in February, Rousey has been again within the highlight greater than she’s been at any time since she left the WWE. One of many large takeaways from the brand new e book, apart from her admission {that a} historical past of concussions helped make up her thoughts to depart MMA, is that Rousey thinks she was handled poorly by members of the media after her back-to-back losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, which had been her last two MMA fights.

“MMA media” is a reasonably all-inclusive time period that many individuals equate not simply with members of legacy and conventional media shops – i.e. the Los Angeles Occasions, USA TODAY/MMA Junkie, ESPN – but in addition with broadcast analysts, former fighters who’ve preview reveals on YouTube, or perhaps a random blogger whose podcast will get 40 streams per week. It wasn’t clear if Rousey was speaking about particular segments of the MMA media area.

Rousey informed Jake Humphrey and Damian Hughes of the Excessive Efficiency podcast that what she wrote in her e book about individuals hating her when she left MMA was “fairly correct in my thoughts.”

“Ask the MMA media (why what I gave wasn’t sufficient) – they’re those saying it … that I used to be a fraud and I used to be hype and I used to be uncovered and I used to be by no means something and simply fortunate and all of this stuff, that I used to be ungracious or I used to be a loser, or each different factor that I simply assume at this level as a result of I don’t take the time to learn it,” Rousey mentioned.

“Every little thing that might be mentioned that was damaging was mentioned, and I really feel actually vilified by MMA media at this level and not likely welcome again, which is why I haven’t gone to a UFC battle since (I left). I’m fairly certain if I walked into the sector, I’d be booed. That’s the way it feels.”

After her concussion revelation, Rousey has been supported by some high-profile figures within the MMA world – like Daniel Cormier. However she’s additionally been roundly criticized by others, like Jimmy Smith.

When it was urged by the hosts that she maybe was being exhausting on herself, Rousey reaffirmed she was speaking about “what it’s prefer to have everybody hate you.”

“I dwell it,” Rousey mentioned. “I suppose I want it didn’t (trouble me). I gave them every thing I had, and it wasn’t sufficient. However that’s why lots of people don’t give every thing that they’ve, as a result of they don’t wish to face it if it wasn’t sufficient. I understand it was sufficient for me, however not sufficient for individuals on the surface. However it actually wasn’t for them.”

After she gained bronze in judo on the 2008 Summer season Olympics, Rousey moved to MMA. She completed her first three novice opponents in lower than a minute, all by armbar. After she turned professional in 2011, the armbar barrage continued. She gained the Strikeforce girls’s bantamweight title towards Miesha Tate and set off arguably the largest rivalry in girls’s MMA historical past.

She was the explanation Dana White relented and ushered the ladies’s period into the UFC in 2013. However after a 12-0 begin with 11 first-round finishes and 6 UFC title defenses, she was upset by Holly Holm in 2015. 13 months later, when she tried to recapture the belt towards Amanda Nunes, she was stopped in simply 48 seconds.

The loss to Nunes stays her last MMA battle in December 2016. In 2017, Rousey signed with the WWE and began actively performing for the corporate in 2018. She left the WWE this previous fall and introduced her professional wrestling retirement, although she’s made one-off appearances for different wrestling organizations.