UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey has talked more about fighting in the past few months, while supporting the release of her autobiography, than she did during the final few years competing in the sport.
She’s discussed openly how a multitude of concussions ultimately led to her retirement and it was actually a concussion prior to her fight against Holly Holm that played such a pivotal role in her first loss. More recently, Rousey claimed that she’s been vilified by the MMA media and her accomplishments have been shrouded in negativity so much that she’s convinced she would get booed out of the building if she showed up to a UFC event.
Recently retired UFC legend Matt Brown doesn’t really see why Rousey is complaining so much, especially given her particular level of celebrity.
“I mean the first thing that comes to my mind is what’s the problem?” Brown said on the latest episode of The Fighter vs. The Writer. “Like is she complaining? What’s the problem? Maybe people have said bad things about you. Welcome to being a human. Welcome to being famous. What did you expect?
“It’s not like she was out saving babies and shit. She wasn’t out there putting her best foot forward all the time. What do you expect?”
If Rousey really wants to understand why she’s fallen out of favor with UFC fans, Brown says she has to look no further than the litany of interviews she’s given in support of her book release.
She’s laid out a long list of reasons why she struggled in losses to Holm and Amanda Nunes at the end of her career. Rousey has stated specifically that those losses stung her so much worse than anyone else because no one has ever loved being a UFC champion like she did.
Through it all, Rousey explained all the things that went wrong during her UFC career, but she’s barely addressed Holm or Nunes as opponents, much less what they did right to beat her.
“I get where she’s bitter and can’t accept the loss and blaming it externally is always the wrong thing,” Brown said. “Even if you were injured, and I can relate to this because it’s happened to me. I’ve been injured in fights. I’ve been sick. I’ve had the flu in fights. I’ve got a lot of fights. You don’t have 50 fights and it go right every time. That’s one of the reasons why we have so much respect for guys like [Julio Cesar] Chavez, who won like 84 fights in a row or I’ll mention Floyd [Mayweather], he did win 49 in a row. At some point in one of those fights, shit’s not going to be right and you’re going to have to fight through it.
“So for her to think that she’s special because she had a concussion, it’s just silliness. I could look at a loss, and I could give you all the reasons why I lost. But any time you say it out loud, it’s an excuse. It’s purely excuse. If someone brings it up and the first thing you talk about is how injured you were or something. Even if you’re trying to make it a reason, it’s an excuse. That’s all there is to it.”
While Rousey details the struggles she faced that played a part in her losses, Brown says that’s completely ignoring the possibility that her opponents were dealing with the same kind of issues.
“Like when she fought Holly Holm, I bet if we talked to Holly she’d be like ‘yeah, I had this injury and this injury.’ How do we know she didn’t have a concussion?” Brown said. “It’s just silliness.
“I feel like it’s kind of one of those things, we should almost just ignore it. I almost don’t want to feed it. It doesn’t help the situation and it’s unfortunate.”
As much as concussions, injuries or other problems may have played a part in Rousey’s losses, Brown just doesn’t see that she’s really learned much from those experiences other than trying to explain away why she got beaten.
That leads to backlash from fans, who see Rousey’s statements as excuses rather than somebody who accepted defeat and now seeks to come back better from it.
“It’s just sad,” Brown said. “Because she’s got to live with herself. That’s the sad part. I’ve got losses. I’ve got way more losses than Ronda. I fought a lot more times than Ronda. But you don’t want to go around living that way, blaming other people for the way your life is or the way that you’re portrayed.
“I don’t doubt for a second that she could reconcile everything. Like she could walk in and show a little bit of humility — like you said, just show a little bit of f*cking humility and everybody would be bowing down to her again. Hire a f*cking PR person! Just hire a f*cking halfway decent PR person, tell you what to say, just say the shit and the world is yours again. You’re f*cking back at the top of the celebrity list. But no one wants to hear the shit that she’s saying.”
Brown also takes issue with the way that Rousey has seemingly painted her experiences as wholly unique because she was occupying rarified air while competing in the UFC.
There’s no denying Rousey faced pressure and expectation unlike almost anybody else in the sport, but Brown says whether she was the biggest star or the curtain jerker opening the card, the emotions and turmoil that fighters face are almost universal.
“This is everyday fighter shit. You’re just not a fighter,” Brown said. “She didn’t go through anything that anyone else [hasn’t gone] through. Of course, it happened to her on a way, way bigger stage than most, which is what I think is what got to her. She wasn’t mentally prepared for that type of stage and just didn’t handle it well.”
If Rousey really wanted to be embraced by UFC fans again, Brown knows it’s possible but he just doesn’t expect her to take the steps necessary to rebuild that bridge.
“Most of the MMA world wants to love her,” Brown said. “She’s a perfect figure for us all to love and attach to. She has all of the right qualities, but she pushes us away. She pushes that away from her. I think every fan wants to love her.”
