Former UFC superstar Ronda Rousey has revealed that her history of concussions stemming back to her days competing at an Olympic level in Judo was the reason for her sudden retirement from MMA following a TKO loss to Amanda Nunes in 2016.
That loss had come off the back off a brutal knockout defeat against Holly Holm a year earlier and led Rousey to the conclusion that she could no longer risk her long-term health by continuing to compete in the Octagon.
“My concussion history that I had to keep secret for years so I would be able to continue to compete and perform, that’s basically why I had to retire,” Rousey said in an Instagram Live stream to promote her new book, ‘Our Fight.’
Rousey went on to elaborate on why she stayed far away from the media spotlight after her first loss to Holm.
“I think that there was just so much to (that loss), that I couldn’t talk about it in the form of like an interview or an article or anything like that, or there would be several filters between my words and people reading it. So much had to do with having so many concussions when I was in judo before I even got into MMA, I couldn’t talk about it at all when I was doing MMA because it would literally put a target on my head, and I might not have been allowed to compete any further.
“Same thing with WWE. They have a complicated history with their performers getting concussions, and it would be a bad look on them. So I felt like I really couldn’t talk about it at all. So I feel like this long form (book) is the only way that I would be able to adequately address it.”
Rousey says her new book is the best way to explain in detail what was really happening at that time.
“I’d like people to understand more of my reason and motivation behind things, why I was forced to leave fighting when I’ve never been faster, stronger, more skilled and had a better understanding of the art than ever before,” Rousey said. “It was a really hard decision to understand but one that my body really made for me. I feel like this is the only way to really get that across in the best, most complete way that it’s not just a tweet and a headline short.”
