Ronda Rousey was the first-ever female UFC Champion and put women’s MMA on the map, but a lot of fans began criticizing her fighting skills after her losses to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in 2015 and Amanda Nunes at UFC 207 in 2016.
After her final fight, Rousey only made one more UFC appearance, when she got inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame in 2018.
During an interview on High Performance, Rousey explained she doesn’t attend UFC events anymore:
“I don’t know, ask the MMA media that. They are the ones saying it. That I was a fraud and I was hype and I was exposed and I was never anything and just lucky and all of these things. And that I wasn’t gracious or a good loser, or you know every other thing.
I feel like I’m really vilified by MMA media at this point and I’m not really welcomed back, which is why I haven’t gone to a UFC fight since, because I’m pretty sure if I walked into the arena, I’d be booed. Yeah! That’s how it feels.”
When asked why fans’ criticism bothers her so much, she replied:
“Why? I guess I wish it didn’t but I gave them everything I had and that wasn’t enough. But that’s why a lot of people don’t give everything that they have because they don’t want to face it if it wasn’t enough but I realized it was enough for me but not for people on the outside. But it was really wasn’t for them.”
As we have reported before, Rousey revealed that she kept her severe concussion history a secret during her UFC & WWE runs, which also played a big factor in her two devastating UFC losses and eventual retirement:
“I’d like people to understand my reasons and motivations behind things. I was forced to leave fighting when I was faster, stronger, more skilled and had a better understanding of the art than ever before.
A really hard decision to understand, but one that my body really made for me.
I feel like this is the only way to really get that across in the best, most complete way that it’s not just a tweet and a headline short.”
WATCH: Natalya Kisses Ronda Rousey’s Buns On RAW:
