UFC boss Dana White in a recent interview discussed the fall of the UFC’s biggest female star Ronda Rousey. Rousey was the UFC’s inaugural women’s bantamweight champion crowned in 2013 and tore through the division. Rousey was renowned for her high level grappling particularly her judo. In fact Rousey won a bronze medal in the 2008 Bejing Olympics for Judo.
The Fall Of Ronda Rousey
Eventually Rousey’s time at the top would come to an end in 2015 being knocked out in Round 2 by Holly Holm. She would then be finished by Amanda Nunes in round 1 in 2016. Many attribute Ronda’s fall to a combination of things. The main thing is her style Rousey as skilled as she was was one dimensional relying on her grappling. So when she came against people who were competent strikers such as Holm and Nunes they decimated her on the feet. The sport had evolved where Rousey had not.
Another issue Rousey had was mentally Ronda prior to her losses was extremely confident bordering on arrogance. This led to big mistakes during fights such as the Holm fight. She decided to stand and trade with Holm a former boxing champion rather than capitalising on her own grappling advantage. And after this loss Ronda crumbled mentally her world shattered. Ronda would then take a year out to recover and recuperate only then to be decimated by Nunes leading to her retirement.
Post the UFC Ronda has had success as a streamer on the Twitch and in the WWE
Dana’s Perspective
Dana gave his view as to why Ronda fell off in an interview. White explained , “She put it on the world stage at a level that nobody else could have done it. While she was doing what she was doing, building the sport and the UFC and women, all these other women were training to beat her”. It being women’s fighting essentially saying Rousey was occupied with building the sport. This is pretty accurate Rousey was the face of WMMA and with that came alot of responsibility. And while she was doing that all the 135 women were training to beat Rousey given she was the dominant champ at the time.
White elaborated on this saying, “She had taken so much on her shoulders at the time, it was literally impossible for her to keep growing as a fighter during that period.”. Essentially saying Rousey’s stardom impeded her ability to keep improving as a fighter which to an extent it did. However, as previously mentioned there were also plenty of other issues.
When asked about Rousey’s retirement Dana said, “I was sad that I wouldn’t work with her on a daily basis like we did but I felt like the timing was right”. He added, “She had done everything she set out to do. Not just for her and her career but what she did for women in fighting in general.”. Here he does have a good point Rousey by the time she retired had achieved alot. Rousey has a great legacy although her achievements in the octagon have been overshadowed what she did for WMMA will never be overshadowed.
Featured image credits to Embed from Getty Images