Ronda Rousey explains her retirement from MMA.
At UFC 193, Ronda Rousey was knocked out by Holly Holm, suffering her first loss in MMA after going 12-0 and becoming one of the top stars, male or female, in the sport.
Rousey returned to the cage after a year off, but suffered another knockout loss to Amanda Nunes.
Rousey’s new book “Our Fight” will release on April 4 and Rousey opens up about her concussion history that began before she entered MMA.
“Another would be my concussion history, that I had to keep secret for years so that I would be able to continue to compete and perform, and basically, why I had to retire,” she said on Never Before Told when asked what people might be surprised to learn from the book.
When asked why she decided to open up about her concussion history and the loss to Holm, Rousey replied, “There is so much to it that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of an interview or an article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it. So much of it had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA. I couldn’t talk about it at all when I got into MMA because it would literally put a target on my head and I might not have been allowed to compete any further. Same thing with WWE. They have a complicated history with their performers getting concussions, so it would be a bad look on them. I really felt like I couldn’t talk about it at all. This long form, I felt it was the only way I could adequately address it.”
After retiring from MMA following her December 2016 loss to Nune, Rousey joined WWE at Royal Rumble 2018.
Rousey had two runs in WWE, but stated she has no intention of going back following her departure after SummerSlam 2022. You can find her full comments by clicking here.
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