A few months ago, in the distant past, when the UFC was still vying for a worthy headliner for next weekend's UFC 300, the ever-friendly public began suggesting names pulled from MMA lore.
One of those names was Ronda Rousey, the promotion's first female champion. She left the UFC after a losing streak and then built her new career in WWE. This suggestion alone had UFC president Dana White shaking her head.
White said, “Rhonda is not coming back. There was a final outcome there that showed he wasn't just speculating.
Based on Rousey's comments on a podcast with YouTuber Valeria Lipovetsky released this week, it appears White was right. Listening to Rousey, she didn't leave with any special feelings toward MMA. She quit MMA's “cold turkey” after losing to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207, her second straight loss since starting her pro career at 12-0, partly due to concerns about repeated head injuries. But he said it was also because he felt his contribution was wrong. It will no longer be evaluated.
“When I finally lost and was demonized by the whole world, it forced me to break away from it completely and find what was right in itself, in my world, and in the people I loved and respected around me. I forced it,” Rousey said.
She added that she came back too soon from her first professional loss to Holly Holm (the two matches were just over a year apart). The main reason, she said, was because she felt she “owed it all to her fans.” However, her brain had not fully recovered and she was “not feeling well”. [her] Rousey said as soon as Nunes hit her. When she set about making a meme of her worst moments of lopsided loss, no one seemed to care.
She said this left Rousey bitter and angry with MMA and its fans, and she left the sport for good. It was as sudden a rise, fall, and exit as we've ever seen in martial arts.
In just a few short years, Rousey went from someone only judo enthusiasts had heard of to perhaps the most influential female fighter in the history of martial arts. And it all ended with the first two losses of her career. It took about 6 years from start to finish.
What should we think about that?
Rousey has an idea. According to her story, both of her losses were a combination of bad luck and bad timing. She had a “bad mouthpiece” and bad weight cut against Holm, she said. Against Nunes? She was still reeling from the Holm knockout caused by an improper mouthpiece and weight cut. In other words, the legitimate loss is zero. Isn't that what always happens?
“That one fight alone made everyone feel like, 'Oh, she's a fraud,'” Rousey said. “And I know that I'm the greatest fighter that ever lived. But when I got to the point where neurologically I couldn't take it anymore, all of a sudden, everything I accomplished has become meaningless.”
Two things apply here. For one thing, as someone who Rousey won an Olympic bronze medal in judo and then won her first UFC women's title, she has the right to feel like she's the greatest fighter in the world, or at least she was. That means there is.Maybe she too necessary First, to believe that in order to reach that level, you need to keep going into the cage with the necessary confidence.
But second, Rousey is not the greatest fighter of all time, even when you look at the facts soberly. To make such a claim would put him on par with Muhammad Ali, Jon Jones, “Sugar” Ray Robinson, Demetrius Johnson, and many others, but with a 12-2 professional record, It's hard to argue that.
If you interpret this as saying that Rousey is the greatest fighter in the history of women's MMA or the history of the UFC women's bantamweight division, that is still not true. That honor belongs to Amanda Nunes, who held at least one UFC title (usually two at the same time) for seven consecutive years until her retirement last summer.
But just because Rousey wasn't the best doesn't mean she wasn't as important. In fact, there's a very strong argument that Rousey is the best. important A fighter in the history of women's MMA, and probably all of women's mixed martial arts.
Rousey opened the door to the UFC and gave so many great female fighters the opportunities they deserved. (While we're currently celebrating women's MMA, it's worth remembering that the UFC was actually very slow to introduce MMA, White argued.) many years She believed women would never fight in the UFC until Rousey was the only one to change her mind. ) She became not only the biggest star in women's MMA, but one of the biggest stars in UFC history. She helped diversify and expand fan bases across sports. She also inspired a younger generation of fighters, many of whom are now shaping the thriving women's MMA scene.
She has accomplished a lot with her short time in this sport. She said something very meaningful. She's also probably not the best defender of her own legacy in MMA.
Sometimes these two things are true at the same time. Rousey's loss assessment is extremely selfish and mildly insulting to her opponent. Nearly a decade later, she still seems to have a hard time giving others the recognition they deserve. And her claims that she only lost and that the fans and media betrayed her and made her “villainized” are both exaggerated and indicative of unrealistic expectations.
One of the things people get out of watching sports like this is a kind of living morality play. Combatants walk this intense tightrope, living this mayfly existence in public, oscillating between extreme highs and lows. Part of the emotional payoff for fans is watching how they deal with everything, the good and the bad.
Rousey has always excelled on the positive side. She didn't do very well with bad things. The worst thing you can say about a person is, “That person is a bad loser.” Especially in professional fights, you don't necessarily have to be too good or too experienced to lose. Perhaps you could argue that there is a point where excessive self-consciousness becomes a stumbling block to becoming a great fighter. If you're going to do this, you'd better have at least some delusions of grandeur.
One of the things that made Rousey such a huge star was her willingness to step up and become a lightning rod. She didn't politely ask for her duties in this sport, she demanded it. She understood that too. She earned every bit of it. But so were the other fighters who came before and after her, and those who beat her fair and square.
And both of these things can be true.
