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Ronda Rousey didn’t endear herself to fans after suffering the first loss of her professional mixed martial arts (MMA) career to Holly Holm at UFC 193 in 2015 (free fight here), as she stayed away from the spotlight, covering her face with a pillow when cameras were nearby.
After suffering her second straight defeat, a 48-second knockout loss to Amanda Nunes (see it), she once against dodged the media, skipping the post-fight press conference altogether. In fact, many outlets were forbidden to ask Ronda about her losses even months after during interviews.
According to Ben Asrken, that’s the worst thing anyone can do after a loss. That’s why he chose to lead by example and do the opposite, as he was tweeting and conducting interviews shortly after suffering a five-second knockout loss to Jorge Masvidal (see it), which was the first defeat of “Funky’s” career.
“I think that’s the worst thing you can do,” Askren told MMA Fighting. “I mean obviously if you want to point to who did it the worst was Ronda,” he added.
“I always feel like I want to tell my story the way I want to tell it, and if you hide in the corner, everyone else is going to talk about what you’re going to do. Listen, it happens. It’s part of the sport or even life for that matter. Losses happen. I think the best thing you can do is say, ‘That happened. What am I going to do now?’”
Indeed, it wasn’t until years later that Rousey even mentioned the defeats to the media, which prompted some to wonder if she was mentally weak when it came to suffering setbacks in sports.
To hear Ben tell it, if she had met the losses head on, she would have stopped many of those assumptions people had of her.
“I think that lack of candor on her part leads to a lot of speculation from everybody else,” Askren said of Rousey. “If she sets the record straight, it sort of shuts all that down.”
You know the old saying, people can’t make fun of you if you make fun of yourself first.
Nevertheless, Ronda eventually put her losses behind her and left MMA to become a full-time WWE Superstar. She then left that venture to start a family with her husband and former UFC Heavyweight, Travis Browne.
Ben, meanwhile, will look to get back into the win column when he faces Demian Maia in the main event of UFC Fight Night 162 on October 26.