Almost halfway through the eighth year since her last MMA appearance ended emphatically inside a minute against two-division champion Amanda Nunes, former UFC bantamweight champion and Olympic judo bronze medallist Ronda Rousey has recently spoken about how those in the media propping her up during her prime were quick to treat her poorly after consecutive KO losses.
Rousey: Disappointing, how happily everyone turned on me
RONDA Rousey stepped away from the sport that gave her millions of dollars and star power many didn’t believe possible in her prime years, rather than reset and make the necessary career decisions to rewrite the legacy of an eventful six-year MMA stint.
It’s much easier said than done, having the humilty to accept the need for wholesale changes when you’ve been as dominant as she once was. Yet that pressing need for introspection fell on deaf ears and was a big reason why it would’ve felt like everyone turned against her, a clear refusal to engage – or acknowledge – the issues at hand.
She has since successfully crossed over into the professional wrestling space, headlining multiple WWE events before retiring from competition last year after being left unhappy by a series of different problems explained in her autobiography – the countless concussions suffered during her MMA career caught news headlines.
Every sport suffers from recency bias, some are louder than others – MMA no exception. Joe Rogan declared Max Holloway’s last-second knockout win over Justin Gaethje earlier this month as the best knockout of all-time, and immediately the longtime commentator could be dismissed as purely a prisoner of the moment.
Yet he was the biggest championing Rousey during her rise into prominence, crushing the likes of Cat Zingano and Bethe Correia with frightening ease, and unknowingly building the unbeatable phenom cracked wide open by a savvy Holly Holm that fateful night in Australia. No-one saw it unravelling the way it did.
If the Holm defeat was bad, losing in 48 seconds to Amanda Nunes – the Rousey way – is even worse. She earned more ($3m) from her fight purse than the other 19 fighters on that card did combined, and was never seen in the Octagon again.
Rousey’s rise to 12-0
— 11 first-round finishes: nine submissions, three knockout victories in total
— Eight of her 12 wins were over in a minute or less
— Miesha Tate pushed her to three rounds, went on to win UFC bantamweight gold three years after their rematch
— Headlined four pay-per-view bouts as defending champion. UFC 157, UFC 170, UFC 184 and UFC 190 — defeats by Holm and Nunes were also (UFC 193, UFC 207)
During a recent interview with The Chris Cuomo Project, she vented about why the wider audience’s perceptions towards her soured rather drastically as her combat sports career tailed off but said it was a blessing in disguise.
“It was really disappointing to see how happily everybody turned on me and how people like Joe Rogan, crying in the ring about the honour to be able to call my fights, people I considered friends in the media, so quickly turned on me.
I also am kind of grateful for it in a way, it forced me to separate other people’s perception from my own of myself, which I realised had really become intertwined when you have that kind of outpouring of love and support from people.”
Talking about going from being love-bombed to excessive criticism and ridicule must’ve been difficult for her to deal with, but rather than be proactive and honest with the shortcomings – like her boxing deficiencies – she shut herself out from the world, making excuses while doing so. You won’t get sympathy behaving that way.
“It was pushing me into a lifestyle that was to impress everybody else, pandering and doing things I felt other people would think was cool but I didn’t really enjoy. I hate being paparazzi famous, do not want to be that level of fame where I can’t have a normal life.”
- Rousey on the cost of her fame
As the flagbearer for women’s MMA, you’d naturally wish for a happier conclusion – fairytales rarely happen in sport – and clearly she still has some lingering pain as you’d expect after having her cloak of invincibility stripped emphatically on the world stage twice in 13 months. Nonetheless, one can only hope she’s found peace.
Picture source: Getty Images
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