Despite her hasty and unofficial retirement from the UFC, Ronda Rousey is still the sport’s biggest lady superstar to date, standing tall over ‘The Lioness’ Amanda Nunes and Valentina Shevchenko in terms of popularity. Her charm and persona during the height of her career were truly unmatched, and now, ‘The Rowdy’ has come out with a new revelation.
Joining popular YouTuber, Chris Van Vliet in his studio, Rousey explained why her unprecedented departure from the promotion might have been the perfect silver lining for young upcoming fighters. She said,
“Retiring undefeated would have been such a selfish goal to be able to accomplish because I would have taken all that equity with me and no one would have respected the rest of the women that I left behind.”
Ronda Rousey is asked if she thought about retiring while she was undefeated:
"Retiring undefeated would have been such a selfish goal to be able to accomplish because I would have taken all that equity with me and no one would have respected the rest of the women that I left… pic.twitter.com/9LcJC8An1B
— Jed I. Goodman © (@jedigoodman) August 20, 2024
According to Rousey, retiring undefeated with the belt would’ve been simply selfish, as she would have held up the division without letting other competitors climb the ladder. More importantly, it wouldn’t earn her any respect which the fighter prioritizes over anything. Following her back-to-back losses to Holly Holms first then to Amanda Nunes in 2016, Rousey left the UFC never to return, focusing her efforts on professional wrestling in the WWE.
Furthermore, the former women’s bantamweight champion also opened up about her MMA career and poured cold water on her potential return to the cage, revealing her inadequacy.
Rousey snubs UFC return, deems herself as “neurologically” unfit
Despite the ever-persistent rumors of her UFC comeback, Ronda, during the same conversation with Chris, shut the doors on her UFC return. For the unversed, Rousey suffered her first career defeat at the hands of veteran kickboxer Holly Holms in 2015, losing her title to the “Priest’s daughter.”
Consequently, Rousey took a short break only to return to the promotion the following year to take on surging Brazilian prospect, Amanda Nunes. Despite going into the fight with an adequate training camp, Rousey was dragged through the mud, outstruck, and wobbled on the feet before Nunes emptied the rounds, prompting the referee to jump in and save the former champ from further humiliation.
This was the final nail in the coffin that shut Rousey’s career up for good. During the recent conversation with Chris the judoka turned MMA star revealed that her time with the UFC is long gone and she is “not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level.” According to her, she has taken a lot of damage, and her time as the face of women’s MMA is done and dusted.
