Former UFC champion Ronda Rousey calls herself the greatest fighter of all time and claims she didn’t get much of a promotion from the UFC.
Rousey became UFC bantamweight champion in December 2012 after fight promotion Strikeforce was absorbed by the UFC. She remained champion for over 1,000 days and made her 6 title defenses before suffering her first loss in a match against her opponent. holly holm In November 2015.
More than 13 months passed before Rousey fought again. Lost to titleholder Amanda Nunesremained champion for almost 2,000 days, winning seven title fights in two tenures.
In an interview with podcaster Valeria Lipovetsky, Rousey explained why she felt she lost her last two matches, blaming much of her poor performance on neurological issues from her concussion.
At the same time, she also said that she “never was that much better than anyone else,” but unfortunately a concussion got in her way.
“I was punished over and over again until I couldn’t take it anymore,” she continued. “I know I’m the greatest fighter that ever lived, but when I had so much neurological damage that I got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore… Suddenly, everything I accomplished had meaning to nothing.”
“After that, the battle was over. [first] loss. “I was getting so many concussions that at that point I could literally hit the jab and not get a concussion,” Rousey explained. I supported it, but you couldn’t even tell them why. ”
Rousey also told the hosts that she had a “bad mouthguard” during her first loss and that she recently suffered a concussion from “slipping down some stairs.” This, combined with the “terrible weight loss” she claimed, meant she was on her feet for the entire match with Holm, which lasted a total of 5 minutes and 59 seconds.
Rousey said she owed her comeback fight to Nunes “to the fans” and perhaps needed to “give them an example of overcoming diversity.”
She lost that match by TKO in 48 seconds.
The California native also talked about how she tried to use her sexuality to her advantage “as much as possible.”
“I had to start focusing on that, and I realized that while men don’t have the sex appeal to sell a fight, women can. At least something. For women who have something to sell,” she joked. “I was trying to sort it out a little bit… When I got into MMA, I was like, okay, I have to work hard to look gorgeous.”
Rousey said that when others complain about the lack of promotion from the UFC, she feels like she didn’t get that privilege either.
“I was promoted! I was promoted! It’s not like they were paying for commercials. I was promoting the fight as hard as I was training for the fight. .”
The perfect scenario, Rousey explained, was something like a reality TV show about housewives. She tried to emulate this when she coached on “.ultimate fighter” against rival Miesha Tate.
“Gorgeous women arguing. What if there’s a fight at the end of the season?”
“Gorgeous women create drama and there’s a fight at the end. Everyone will buy it,” she explained. “That’s what I tried to create.”
Despite her injuries at the time, Rousey signed with WWE in 2017 and continued to wrestle outside of the organization until 2023.
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