Ronda Rousey is playing the blame game (again).
The former UFC bantamweight champion, who walked away from combat sports after suffering back-to-back knockout losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, claims the MMA media turned the fans against her and convinced the world she was a fraud.
As for her two professional defeats, she attributes them to her “secret” concussion history and not the skills of her opponents.
That hasn’t stopped Rousey from anointing herself the greatest fighter who ever lived, even with fake friends actively working to undermine her. Or maybe the Olympic bronze medalist is too fragile to face any sort of constructive criticism.
Even her grateful ex-rival, Miesha Tate, suggests Rousey needs to let go of her anger.
“I personally don’t have the animosity that I had for Ronda at one point,” Tate said on Sirius XM’s “MMA Today” show with Ryan McKinnell. “The disdain, the frustration, I’ve been able to work through those things and see my fault in it and try to be a better person. I wish that I could say that I saw the same growth from Ronda, but it doesn’t seem that way. It certainly seems that she’s holding onto the resentment, the frustration and the anger, and allowing it to dictate her next moves. I do not think the MMA community, in large part, ever turned their back on Ronda.”
Tate had a sizable role in Rousey’s rise to fame, thanks to a heated rivalry in Strikeforce that carried over to UFC. In addition to their wildly-entertaining run on The Ultimate Fighter (TUF) 18, “Cupcake” and “Rowdy” ran it back in the UFC 168 co-main event in late 2013.
In addition, Tate predicted a loss to Nunes would send Rousey into retirement.
Tate explained that the person in question had forgotten about the countless little girls worldwide who still looked up to her. Regardless of her winning or losing, these girls admired her greatly. However, Tate believed that she had not reached the point of personal growth that she desired for her. It seemed that she was still deeply affected by her past experiences and was primarily focused on herself rather than evolving as an individual. Tate felt that she was still dwelling on the notion that everyone had turned against her, and that nobody had considered her during her struggles with multiple concussions. Tate wanted to emphasize that the situation was not as black and white as she perceived it to be.
Rousey (12-2) was cheered during her UFC Hall of Fame induction in summer 2018.
Tate explained that receiving criticism is inevitable when you gain fame. In life, no one escapes unharmed, especially if your successes and failures are magnified for everyone to witness. This occurrence is not unique to Ronda Rousey; it happens to every champion. It’s simply the reality that when you achieve greatness, there are individuals who take pleasure in witnessing your downfall.
Tate (20-9) is coming off a submission win over Julia Avila at UFC Austin.
