Ronda Rousey reached the top in UFC and WWE however had an unceremonious exit from each organizations. It seems an undisclosed historical past of concussions abruptly ended her run with every promotion.
The previous UFC ladies’s bantamweight champion left the promotion in 2016 following consecutive knockout losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. Her swift break up from combined martial arts and dismissive perspective in the direction of her UFC tenure soured followers who perceived her as bitter. In line with Rousey, it was her “concussion historical past” predating her MMA run that had her tight-lipped.
“I needed to hold [it] secret for years, so I’d be capable to proceed to compete and carry out,” Rousey advised followers on Instagram Stay whereas teasing content material from her upcoming memoir, Our Struggle.
“I feel that there was simply a lot to [that Holm loss], that I could not discuss it within the type of like an interview or an article or something like that, or there could be a number of filters between my phrases and other people studying it. A lot needed to do with having so many concussions after I was in judo earlier than I even bought into MMA, I could not discuss it in any respect after I was doing MMA. As a result of it would actually put a goal on my head, and I won’t have been allowed to compete any additional.”
Rousey’s concussions performed a direct function in ending her legendary MMA profession.
“That is principally why I needed to retire,” Rousey stated.
Rousey saved the concussions underneath wraps even after she retired from fight sports activities. It was a calculated danger to afford her a second high-profile profession. Rousey made sporadic appearances for WWE beginning in 2014 and signed onto the corporate full-time in 2017. Her time in skilled wrestling led to 4 championship reigns, turning into the eighth ladies’s triple crown champion and successful the 2022 ladies’s Royal Rumble match.
“Similar factor with WWE,” Rousey stated. “They’ve an advanced historical past with their performers getting concussions, and it could be a foul look on them. So I felt like I actually could not discuss it in any respect. So I really feel like this [is the] lengthy kind that I’d be capable to adequately handle it.”
Rousey had a quiet departure from WWE after shedding an “MMA Guidelines” match to her longtime good friend and fellow UFC alum Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam in 2023. She subsequently wrestled two matches elsewhere — together with one in Ring of Honor — teaming with MMA fighter-turned-pro wrestler Marina Shafir. Rousey subsequently retired for the second time.
“A extremely onerous determination to grasp, however one which my physique actually made for me,” Rousey stated. “I really feel like that is the one method to actually get that throughout in the most effective, most full manner that it isn’t only a tweet and a headline quick.”
Rousey’s autobiography Our Struggle will likely be launched on April 2.
