Ronda Rousey reveals that she was suddenly forced to leave the UFC after 2016 due to concussion

UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey has finally addressed her retirement from MMA.

Rousey, a former UFC women's bantamweight champion, is one of the biggest stars in martial arts history. After her TKO loss to Amanda Nunes on December 30, 2016, she mysteriously stepped away from the fight and never returned.

Rousey ended her career with two devastating KO losses, but she never said why she stopped fighting or even officially announced her retirement.

However, more than seven years after her last MMA fight, Rousey finally revealed why she quit MMA.

“I had to keep my concussion history a secret for years in order to continue competing and performing. That's basically why I had to retire,” Rousey said ahead of the release of her new book. He spoke on an Instagram livestream. Fight. “

At the peak of her MMA career, the Olympic judo bronze medalist was undefeated and defended her UFC title six times in a row. She also beat out some of the biggest names at the time, including Miesha Tate, Cat Zingano, Liz Carmouche, and Julia Budd.

But everything changed for Rousey after her first professional loss. Rousey, who was considered unstoppable, was defeated by a head kick from Holly Holm in front of 56,000 fans at UFC 193 in late 2015. She didn't take the loss well.

Rousey never fully addressed her defeat and stayed out of the public eye for months.

“(The loss) was so great that I don't think I could have talked about it in an interview or an article or anything like that. Otherwise, there would be some difference between my words and the people reading them. There's going to be a filter,''' Rousey said of why she never talked about her loss to Holm. “It had a lot to do with the fact that before I started mixed martial arts, I had a lot of concussions when I was doing judo, but when I was doing mixed martial arts, I couldn't talk about it at all. .It would literally put a target on his head.He might not have been allowed to compete any further.

“It's the same with WWE. They have a complicated history with performers getting concussions, and that would look bad on them. So I thought I couldn't really talk about it. Hence this long article (book). I feel this is the only way I can properly address this issue.”

Rousey returned a year after losing to Holm and attempted to regain the title against then-champion Nunes. Unfortunately for Rousey, she was quickly stopped in the first round. Rousey never fought again and she eventually turned to professional wrestling, where she performed for WWE from 2018 to 2023.

Throughout her years in WWE, many fans expected her to return to MMA, but that never happened. The 37-year-old understands some of the confusion from the fan base regarding her retirement from MMA, but she said she had no choice but to step away from the fight.

“My reasons and motivations behind things, why I was forced to walk away from combat even though I was faster, stronger, more skilled and understood the art better than ever before. “I wish people would understand more,” Rousey said. “It was a really hard decision to understand, but one that my body really made for me. This is the best and most complete way to do it, rather than just a short tweet and a headline. I feel like it’s the only way to really tell.”