Ronda Rousey is among the most popular mixed martial artists of all time. She is also one of the most successful women to ever step foot in the octagon, defending the women’s bantamweight title six times.
Despite finding tremendous success during her run in the UFC, ‘Rowdy’ has largely stayed away from the promotion since her last bout, which was at UFC 207 back in 2016.
While she has not expressed an interest in returning, she continues to receive questions about taking a fight. Speaking to Chris Van Vliet on the INSIGHT podcast, Rousey revealed that she does not plan on returning, stating:
“Every couple years or months, they just – the same rumor comes out. So, you know, it’s nice to feel missed, I guess, but yeah, it’s not happening. I’m just not neurologically fit to compete anymore at the highest level. I just can’t. You just get to a level where the nuerologicial injuries you take accumulate over time. They don’t get better and when I got into MMA, I had already had dozens of concussions that I trained through. Like, not even stopped for.”
She continued:
“So, that was like about a decade of having concussions symptoms more often than not. And, so, when I got into MMA, it was really I was playing a game of zero errors. And then it got to the point where I was fighting more often than anybody. I had more outside of fighting responsibilities than anybody. And it just got to be that the lighter and lighter hits were hurting me more and more and more.”
Rousey added that she reached a point where she couldn’t take a jab without getting dazed and having concussion symptoms. She noted that it no longer felt safe to fight at the highest level.
Ronda Rousey shares that walking away from MMA was a tough decision
Ronda Rousey abruptly walked away from mixed martial arts following her TKO loss to Amanda Nunes at UFC 207. The UFC Hall of Famer opened up on her decision during the aforementioned interview with Chris Van Vliet, stating:
“It was really tough and I think that’s why I took that first loss so hard. It’s because I knew it was over. I knew I’d reached that limit. And I was in denial about it and I tried to come back again and with a lot of rest and a better weight cut, not doing the extra stuff, the extra press and just coming in and fighting because dude, if I could just cut to that moment when they say go and I fight, I f**king love that so much. Nothing makes more sense in the world. There’s not a single thing that happens that I don’t understand or that I don’t know what to do.”
Ronda Rousey added that she considered retirement when she was undefeated. She noted that she is glad she did not as it likely would have taken the shine away from the women’s bantamweight division. ‘Rowdy’ revealed that she felt that women’s mixed martial arts was dependent on her at the time.
