In her heyday, former UFC women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey was the face of women’s MMA. However after a pair of losses in the octagon against Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes, ‘Rowdy’ walked away from the sport, and it seems a lot of thought went into her retirement decision.
Rousey last fought professionally in 2016. However, even now, her name comes up when big UFC pay-per-views are on the horizon. Most recently there were many rumors about ‘Rowdy’ returning for UFC 300.
Despite the seemingly high fan interest in her return, the women’s MMA pioneer is clear about her choices. She is never coming back to active competition. During a recent appearance on the INSIGHT podcast, the former fighter claimed that she was no longer fit to compete at the highest level:
“It’s nice to feel missed, I guess. But it’s not happening. I’m not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level. I just can’t.”
The 37-year-old stated that she was already battling through adverse effects from prior concussions during her UFC career and by the end she struggled with getting hit with even the lightest of jabs.
Furthermore, Rousey didn’t want to incur permanent injuries by sticking around for too long, and risk deterring young women from taking up the sport:
“I just felt it was my responsibility to age gracefully because I’m a representative of my sport. People look at me and think of women’s MMA. If I’m rolling around in a wheelchair, people aren’t going to let their little girls go and do it. You never know when you take one hit too many until decades later.”
Ronda Rousey labels pro-wrestling as “the purest form of fight choreography”
It looks like her love for fight choreography was one of the things that drew Ronda Rousey to pro wrestling. ‘Rowdy’ told INSIGHT host Chris Van Vliet how she choreographed all the fight scenes in her new graphic novel ‘Expecting the Unexpected’ and heaped high praises on pro-wrestling.
As a former WWE Superstar sees it, the sport has no margin for error and is one of the most raw forms of choreography:
“I feel like pro wrestling is the purest form of fight choreography. [You have] one shot to do it, 360-degree view, live… And I think what is special about pro wrestling is that you have to tell the story within the fight itself… You have to show that character and who each person is within the fight itself, which I love.”
