Now Ronda Rousey has signed with the WWE, it probably signals the end of her MMA career, although she is only 31 and has still not formally announced her retirement, so who knows.
I feel there is still much resentment towards Rousey from some MMA fans and the MMA media. This stems from how she left the sport, not just the two defeats to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, but specifically how she handled those defeats.
Rousey didn’t address the media after her shock defeat to Holm, she did almost no media in the build up to her fight with Nunes, and nothing after.
The perceived view is Rousey was unhappy how the MMA media reported her loss to Holm. I completely understand that you can’t have it both ways, use the media to build your profile when everything is going well and then do nothing when it goes wrong, turning your back on the people who helped to make you.
The MMA media has a right to critique Rousey, and has every right to have issues with how Rousey has almost blanked the MMA media since her loss to Holm.
But also we need to cut Rousey a little slack. The two losses obviously affected Rousey in a very big way, probably more than we will ever know. In an interview with ESPN this past week, Rousey still couldn’t talk about the defeats, turning away from the camera when asked to do so.
I get the argument Rousey has suffered bigger issues in her personal life and even in judo she had to deal with defeat in the Olympics. But nobody knows her mental state, the scars she carries from her MMA defeats, probably scars still from other issues she has had to deal with.
We are all different, we all handle things differently, and whatever we think, Rousey has every right not to do media or handle her issues anyway she pleases.
Personally I think Rousey would be better served talking about those defeats, it would give her and everyone else closure.
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