Ronda Rousey reveals concussions forced abrupt UFC exit after 2016

UFC Hall of Famer Ronda Rousey has finally addressed her exit from MMA.

Rousey, a former UFC women’s bantamweight champion, is certainly one of the largest stars in combat sports history. She mysteriously walked away from fighting after a Dec. 30, 2016 TKO loss to Amanda Nunes and never returned.

Although she closed out her profession with two devastating knockout losses, Rousey never really addressed why she stopped fighting, nor did she even formally announce her retirement.

Nonetheless, greater than seven years after her last MMA fight, Rousey finally shed some light on why she left MMA.

“My concussion history that I had to maintain secret for years so I might give you the chance to proceed to compete and perform, that’s mainly why I needed to retire” Rousey said in an Instagram Live stream ahead of the discharge of her recent book, “Our Fight.”

At the height of her MMA profession, the Olympic judo bronze medalist was unbeaten and had defended her UFC title six consecutive times. She had also defeated among the biggest names of her time, including Miesha Tate, Cat Zingano, Liz Carmouche, Julia Budd, and others.

Nonetheless, all the things modified for Rousey after her first skilled defeat. Rousey, who was seen as an unstoppable force, was viciously knocked out by a Holly Holm head kick in front of 56,000 fans at UFC 193 in late 2015. She didn’t take the loss well.

Rousey never fully addressed the defeat and stayed away from the general public eye for months.

“I believe that there was just a lot to (that loss), that I couldn’t speak about it in the shape of like an interview or an article or anything like that, or there can be several filters between my words and folks reading it,” Rousey said regarding why she never spoke in regards to the loss to Holm. “A lot needed to do with having so many concussions after I was in judo before I even got into MMA, I couldn’t speak about it in any respect after I was doing MMA because it could literally put a goal on my head, and I won’t have been allowed to compete any further.

“Same thing with WWE. They’ve a sophisticated history with their performers getting concussions, and it could be a nasty look on them. So I felt like I actually couldn’t speak about it in any respect. So I feel like this long form (book) is the one way that I might give you the chance to adequately address it.”

Rousey would return a yr after the loss to Holm to attempt to win back her title against then-champ Nunes. Unfortunately for Rousey, she was quickly stopped in the primary round. Rousey never fought again and eventually turned to skilled wrestling, where she performed for WWE from 2018 to 2023.

Throughout her years in WWE, many fans were looking forward to an MMA return, but it surely never got here. The 37-year-old understands among the confusion from the fan base regarding her exit from MMA but said that she had no alternative but to steer clear of fighting.

“I’d like people to grasp more of my reason and motivation behind things, why I used to be forced to depart fighting after I’ve never been faster, stronger, more expert and had a greater understanding of the art than ever before,” Rousey said. “It was a very hard decision to grasp but one which my body really made for me. I feel like that is the one strategy to really get that across in the perfect, most complete way that it’s not only a tweet and a headline short.”