In her hay days, Ronda Rousey was one of the biggest superstars in the UFC and even Dana White was a big fan. However, his recent comments about her ‘inevitable’ fall from grace hasn’t gone down with MMA journalist, Ariel Helwani.
During During an appearance in the Club Shay Shay podcast, White gave ‘Rowdy’ her flowers and said that the former women’s champion had a lot on her shoulders and while she was putting the sport and the company on the map, everybody else was trying to defeat her. This is why he believes it was impossible for her to keep growing as a fighter during that time.
However, Ariel Helwani disagrees with the UFC president. The scribe made the calculus simple for people to understand and said that she was just defeated by a better fighter and retired as it has happened before and will continue to happen.
“By this logic no superstar athlete could be successful for more than 3 years. The revisionist history on Ronda’s MMA departure is getting a little wacky. It’s not that complicated. She was incredible. A megastar. She helped opened the door to a whole new generation of fighters. And then she lost to a better fighter. And then another. And then retired. It happens.”
By this logic no superstar athlete could be successful for more than 3 years.
The revisionist history on Ronda’s MMA departure is getting a little wacky.
It’s not that complicated. She was incredible. A megastar. She helped opened the door to a whole new generation of fighters.… https://t.co/D5EnrvM5I5
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) June 20, 2024
For the unversed, ‘Rowdy’ Rousey was UFC’s first women’s champion in a sport that was dominated by men. Her patented arm bar and judo skills were unmatched at the time and she just ran through the competition like a knife through hot butter.
However, once the champ met technical fighters like Holly Holms and Amanda Nunes, she found herself in the back, unable to do anything significant against the well-rounded strikers.
So, paying his respects to Rousey, Helwani respectfully deemed White’s claim illogical.
In fact, he has a point here, greatness is achieved when you bounce back from a loss, GSP, Kamaru Usman, and other greats all have done it and had some of the sport’s longest title reigns but Rousey’s limitations simply were too overwhelming.
While this was the harsh reality, White chose to look on the bright side and acknowledge Rousey’s talent as an athlete.
White showers praise on Rousey despite unprecedented UFC exit
All in all, Ronda Rousey just suffered two defeats in her career. But those were the straws that eventually broke the camel’s back as Rousey never really came back to the UFC.
Her first loss came against Holly Holms, who she had mocked a lot going into the fight. Holms was the underdog afterall.
Rousey met Holms in 2015 at UFC 293, who dismantled her with a head kick, ending her winning reign and snatching her bantamweight gold in the process.
Next, Amanda Nunes nailed the final nail in the coffin, bloodying the American in the first round, ending her three-year run in the UFC.
Thereafter, Rousey appeared in WWE but never in the UFC. However, before there was Conor McGregor, it was Rousey who was the biggest name in the sport. She was on Jimmy Fallon and late night shows making the UFC mainstream.
So, it doesn’t come as a surprise to many that Dana White is a ‘Rowdy’ fan.
