Dylan jackson
Ronda Rousey reached her peak in the UFC and WWE, but had an unceremonious exit from both organizations. It turns out that an undisclosed history of concussions abruptly ended his run with each promotion.
The former UFC women’s bantamweight champion left the promotion in 2016 after back-to-back knockout losses to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. Her quick separation from mixed martial arts and dismissive attitude towards her UFC tenure soured fans who considered her bitter. According to Rousey, it was her “concussion history” prior to her MMA run that left her tight-lipped.
“I had to keep [it] secret for years, so I could continue to compete and perform,” Rousey told fans on Instagram Live while teasing the contents of her upcoming memoir, Our fight.
“I think there was so much to [that Holm loss], that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of an interview or an article or something like that, or there would be a lot of filters between my words and the people who read them. So much had to do with so many injuries when I was in judo, before I even got into MMA, that I couldn’t talk about it when I was in MMA. Because that would literally put a target on my head and I might not be allowed to compete anymore.”
Rousey’s concussions played a direct role in ending her legendary MMA career.
“That’s basically why I had to retire,” Rousey said.
Rousey kept her concussions a secret even after retiring from combat sports. It was a calculated risk to provide him with a second prominent career. Rousey made sporadic appearances for WWE starting in 2014 and signed with the company full-time in 2017. Her time in professional wrestling led to four championship reigns, becoming the eighth Women’s Triple Crown Champion and winning the Royal Rumble match women’s 2022.
“Same thing with WWE,” Rousey said. “They have a complicated history with their performers suffering concussions, and that would look bad on them. So I felt like I couldn’t really talk about it. [is the] long format that I would be able to address it properly.”
Rousey had a quiet exit from WWE after losing an “MMA Rules” match to her longtime friend and UFC alumna Shayna Baszler at SummerSlam in 2023. She subsequently wrestled two matches elsewhere – including one in the Ring of Honor – in partnership with an MMA fighter. Professional fighter Marina Shafir. Rousey later retired for the second time.
“A really difficult decision to understand, but one that my body actually made for me,” Rousey said. “I feel like this is the only way to really convey this in the best, most complete way that isn’t just a tweet and a short headline.”
Rousey’s autobiography Our fight will be released on April 2nd.
