Ronda Rousey was famously KO’d by Holly Holm in a one-sided fight back in 2015 that marked the end of her unbeaten run and title reign, but ‘Rowdy’ reckons that a rematch in the present day would go a whole lot differently.
The 39-year-old Rousey’s remarks come just a a couple of weeks after she returned to action for the first time in a decade for a fight with Gina Carano on Netflix, which saw her beat the 44-year-old with her signature armbar submission in just 17 seconds.
That’s inevitably led to talk of Rousey potentially attempting to avenge her most notorious loss to Holm, and it seems that she’s more than willing to entertain talk of how that rematch might go, but appears to have no intention of actually backing up her words with action.
“I said I’m retired, A, and B, I think that I am a completely different fighter now. I would clean her clock and definitely now that I got that new medication,” Rousey said on the Up And Adams show. “I took it before. I was diagnosed with cortical spreading depression, which was always happening in my last fights and basically why I was like I need to stop. I thought my concussions were catching up to me.
“This is the first fight where I was able to take it and when I spiked my head into the mat, that’s exactly the kind of thing that would have set me off before. I would have lost big chunks of my vision and it didn’t come back at all. It ended up working perfectly in a live situation.”
Rousey goes on to claim that despite now having the opportunity to be bigger, better and healthier than ever, she’s come to the realization that she just wants to go back into retirement and be a mom.
“I was just talking yesterday how I feel like an alchemist where a person goes through everything they went through and they return a changed person at the end,” Rousey said. “I feel like how many years ago, 10 years ago or whatever the hell it would be, this would be exactly what I would have wanted. More than anything. A chance at coming back and redemption and beating her and I could feasibly have Amanda Serrano or something after that and have bigger and bigger money fights and all this fame and all this money and right now it’s completely within my grasp.
“I’m better than I’ve ever been. I have better coaches than I’ve ever had. I finally don’t have these neurological issues that I had before. But now that I have it all set in front of me, I’ve changed and the things that I want have changed and suddenly these aren’t the most important things in the world to me anymore. It’s these kids and spending time with them. I think that’s the journey that I had to go through. I had to get to this point where you could have all of those things that you wanted 10 years ago but you’ve grown and you’re a different person now and you don’t want those things anymore.
“I think I definitely have the ability and the opportunity to be able to f*cking clean her clock and rewrite all of that but it’s no longer important to me anymore,” Rousey said. “It doesn’t haunt me. It’s not the most important thing in my life and these people’s perceptions and knowing how great I am and all this stuff.
“I know how good I am and my kids need me in their life and I want to be there for them. This isn’t the most important thing anymore. Of course the time that I get where I could go back and do that, I don’t want to go back. I only want to go forward.”
So it seems that recent comments from Holm that Rousey wouldn’t take a rematch were correct, though ‘The Preacher’s Daughter’ has left the door ajar in case she ever changes her mind.
“I highly doubt she’ll ever want a rematch,” Holm told MMA Fighting after Rousey’s recent win. “I always have said since the minute the last fight was over, I’ll always rematch her. That’s always been available. But she wanted to come back and have this win and go back and enjoy and have a win like that.
“No hate from me. I hope she does well. I hope she does whatever she wants with her life. That’s her life. I’d always be open to fight her again.”
