Rousey Not Ready For UFC Events: ‘I’d Be Booed’

Rousey believes the media perpetrated such a hitjob on her after her loss that fans would boo her if she showed up cageside at a UFC event.

Don’t expect to see Ronda Rousey cageside at any UFC events in the future.

The former women’s bantamweight champion and UFC Hall of Famer rose to fame off a series of lightning quick submission wins, going 12-0 over the first four years of her MMA career. But then the wheels came off: “Rowdy” lost to Holly Holm via headkick KO, and then lost in less than a minute to Amanda Nunes.

Rousey disappeared from the public eye after the Holm loss, and was allowed to skip all media interviews for her comeback fight against Nunes. After that defeat she dropped off the face of the earth again, only to reappear two years later in the WWE. Why did she turn her back on the MMA world completely after her losses? In a new episode of the High Performance podcast, Rousey says the MMA world turned its back on her first.

“Ask the MMA media that, they are the ones saying it,” she said about the ‘hate’ she received after her two losses. “That I was a fraud and I was hype and I was exposed and I was never anything and just lucky and all of these things. And that I wasn’t gracious or a good loser, or every other thing that I just assume at this point because I don’t take the time to read it.”

“Everything that could be said that was negative was said,” she continued. “And I feel like I’m really vilified by MMA media at this point and I’m not really welcomed back. Which is why I haven’t gone to a UFC fight since, because I’m pretty sure if I walked into the arena, I’d be booed.”

This is a bit of a chicken and egg situation. Did Ronda Rousey abandon the MMA world because the fans and media turned against her, or did the fans and media turn against her because Ronda Rousey abandoned the MMA world?

There’s a very real love-hate thing going on between fighters and the fandom, and it can feel very toxic at times. But the MMA media is not a monolith. There are tons of sites with lots of opinions, and many gave Rousey all credit for being a dominant champion for years … while still reporting on the fact that she was shattered by her losses and hiding from the world. Which is how she describes the situation herself in her new book.

It’s just too bad that Rousey still feels like she’s not welcome at a UFC event. Sure, she might get a few boos, but is that so tough to take after a few WWE heel runs? Trump got booed the first few times he showed up at the UFC, and now he’s treated like royalty. If you want the love in this sport, you gotta accept the hate as well. Do that, and you’d be surprised how quickly things turn around.